Veteran chief officer retires from planning ministry

| 08/07/2021 | 45 Comments
Cayman News Service
Alan Jones

(CNS): Alan Jones, a career civil servant of more than 31 years, will retire at the end of this month from the planning ministry, where he has been in the top job for almost a decade. While the portfolios have changed over the years, Jones has served in this ministry for most of his career, including as the director of Lands and Survey before becoming the ministry’s boss. There has been no announcement yet as to who will take over as chief officer in the ministry now held by Minister Jay Ebanks, but there are three deputies waiting in the wings.

Caymanians Tristan Hydes, Tamara Ebanks and Leyda Nicholson-Makasare are all experienced senior civil servants who have worked in the ministry and various relevant departments for many years.

Deputy Governor Franz Manderson thanked Jones for his many years of service to the government and people of the Cayman Islands, and although he avoided mention of succession planning for the chief officer post, he noted Jones’ advice in the past on this issue.

“Mr Jones championed training and development opportunities for his staff and took great pride in succession planning,” he said. “He provided me with sage advice and could be counted on to deliver, at pace, a range of priority projects of the government, while observing the principles of good governance.”

A press release about his departure outlined some of the projects Jones was responsible for, including the establishment of the Major Projects Office, which they said had “dramatically improved the delivery of governments capital projects”.

Jones stated that one of the aspects that he had focused on was to bring a more dynamic and problem-solving culture to the ministry. He took pride in the fact that he was able to build real relationships with his heads of department and identify innovative ways to provide them with the resources they required to provide a high level of service to their customers.


Share your vote!


How do you feel after reading this?
  • Fascinated
  • Happy
  • Sad
  • Angry
  • Bored
  • Afraid
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Tags: , , , ,

Category: Government Administration, Politics

Comments (45)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. Anonymous says:

    What the public needs to know how much did his “Retirement “ cost the Government coffers?

    • Anonymous says:

      How is this anyone’s else’s business except Mr. Jones and the Civil Service HR?

      Do we know all that happens in the private sector?

      The Bill of Rights needs to now be extended to the private sector.

  2. Anonymous says:

    He should not have been there in the first place.

  3. Anonymous says:

    Speaking of planning, isn’t there a board meeting on Monday? Going to be missing a member already?

    https://judicial.ky/wp-content/uploads/courts/summary-court/SummaryCourtListing-July12,2021MagistrateHernandez.pdf

    • Anonymous says:

      These cases take years and the business owner doesn’t go to every court hearing, so there’s a good chance he’ll be at the CPA meeting.

  4. $$ No Problem says:

    I seriously doubt that Mr Jones is 65 years of age. Since 65 is the retirement age for civil servants, can the DG tell us if the government will continue to pay him until he reaches 65 along with paying whoever replaces him.

  5. Neverwannabeacivilservant says:

    Is there a single expat in the Civil Service (out of the few), no matter how well qualified and how well he does his job, that is not denigrated by so many ignorant and xenophobic co-workers?.The irony is unlimited coming from so many who gain their jobs claiming self entitlement and little else.

  6. Anonymous says:

    Leda for CO please! Not Mr Boardwalk

    • Anonymous says:

      Oh my Lord! Leyda? Lovely person but CO? No, please.

      • B says:

        Leyda took over Public Works Department and I can say this, “It was the best and most organized time that the department experienced in my 30 plus years working there, she was hands-on, calm, and calculated she put a major pause to petty power struggles and preached team and unity for the public’s benefit and it was really working but she had to return to her post” I would be thankful if she became CO because I saw and experienced her leadership and I know for a fact that the public is her main concern. She is a great asset as a woman leader!

  7. Anonymous says:

    SIr you did some good things in your time and helped a lot of Caymanians. they not going to say so and just complain you not do anything but i seen you fight for them, get them training and try get them new opportunities. you wont get no thanks, no matter, you done right.dont worry about the haters, what they do..probably plenty of nothing. leave the stress to the rest of them now, if they feel they can do better time for action less talk

  8. Anonymous says:

    Based on what was written above Alan Jones clearly had the ears of the Deputy Governor, and gave him advice against quite a few Caymanians who he could not push around. This speaks volumes to all Caymanians who have been marginalized by “the system”. Karma is the great equalizer all around, this ‘retirement’ forced or voluntary has been long overdue, and people said he brought little if anything to the table.

    1
    1
  9. Anonymous says:

    This guy is a seriously intelligent person who understood all the aspects of his job 100%. His problem was he was not born here and we have a terrible xenophobic attitude to such people (as the comments show). We would rather incompetent morons so long as they are “generational Caymanians” but then, of course we bitch about them (and Franz) when they cannot do their jobs because they are not bright enough but have the right birth certificate. Some, not all, of the locals he had to work with over the years were lazy useless civil servants and, of course, if he tried to get them to do better, it meant he did not have Caymanians at heart blah blah. It will be interesting to see his successor.

    • Anonymous says:

      This is the most accurate comment on the topic. Thank you.

    • Anonymous says:

      I hear all your praise and defence @Anonymous 6:51pm. However you are assuming that his intelligence was put to good use, and that he actually knew how to lead people.

      The most effective and impactful leaders I’ve worked for set the right example, drove change, actually cared about people, didn’t play favourites and weren’t fearful of those who understood a matter better than they did.

      Some people would follow a mop stick simply because it came from their country of origin. Others are given instant credibility because of their origin. Both are perfect examples of a racist mindset. Everyone should be judged on their merits/performance.

      I never worked with this gentleman, but I find your tone most interesting especially because I’ve heard the mix of experiences from those who actually worked with him.

      Let the man retire in peace.

  10. Anonymous says:

    Thank you Alan. I am one Caymanian who benefitted from the training opportunities he provided for me.

    The rookie Minister needed an experience Chief Officer. Watch this space..

  11. Anon says:

    Pretty sure Troy Whorms from PWD who is acting will come and ACT as CO. Lol.

    Them poor deputies CO’s don’t stand a chance at Acting as CO.

    • Anonymous says:

      Alan Jones was always a waste of space.

      Mentored and protected by Kearney Gomez and then Franz Manderson – that says it all.

      Good riddance!

      1
      1
      • Anonymous says:

        He never needed protecting by anyone. He fought his own battles .

        1
        1
        • Anonymous says:

          4:52 pm But he never chose his battles wisely. No one protected him….they just didn’t properly document or fire him.

      • Anonymous says:

        4:09 actually it says nothing!

        Isn’t it the job of our DG to hold his team accountable and protect them when it is warranted.

        Stop being jealous

      • Anonymous says:

        4:09 pm Completely agree.

      • Anonymous says:

        So Kearney mentored and promoted Alan Jones, Christine Maltman and Jennifer Ahearn in his Ministry, all non generational Caymanians. One wonders why……

        • Anonymous says:

          Because despite XXXXX, 8:40, KG was smart enough to to recognize talent wherever it came from and he realised that these people were better prospects to promote in the civil service than that guy who recently ran in East End and was known by everyone but himself to be of very limited ability.

          1
          1
          • Anonymous says:

            True about the East End one, whose only skill appears to have been able to play office politics with the right protectors, plus play PAC MAN for hours in George Town on government time. But there were many other generational Caymanians Kearney kept down too, and the case of the late Dr. Astley speaks volumes.

            • Anonymous says:

              I don’t want to speak negatively about the dead but as one who worked with him let me just say you are wrong about Dr Astley. He was, however, shockingly treated by KG and his Ministry in the way it dealt with his ineffectiveness and he deserved to win his court case.

            • Anonymous says:

              @11:03, your example is not a very persuasive one. Dr McLaughlin, a gentle decent highly intelligent man, was qualified in chemical engineering. When he returned to Cayman after some years away, he fell prey to the theory that a Caymanian as bright as he was can do any job even if it bore NO relationship to his education, qualifications and experience. So he was appointed to MRCU, a highly specialist post, of course, requiring extensive knowledge of and experience in dealing with mosquitoes. Unsurprisingly, failure followed and Gomez ( in particular) and Government, including our legal system, handled the whole matter of what to do with Dr McLaughlin utterly abysmally and, as it turned out, illegally, resulting in the Privy Council eventually ruling in Astley’s favor.

          • Anonymous says:

            Regardless such hand picking of people like that keeps generational Caymanians down. There must have been other Caymanians that could have been developed. I know Caymanians who he deliberately tried to push out and denied them training, and favored expats instead who were less talented. Short term attitude that was.

        • Anonymous says:

          PPM plan…

  12. Anonymous says:

    As a Civil Servant who has work with Mr. Jones and can tell you first hand whether forced or voluntary his departure is a blessing for the service. He has No Respect for Caymanians. Good riddance!!

    1
    1
  13. anonymous says:

    THANK YOU ALAN JONES!

  14. Anonymous says:

    Be prepared for a brain drain as these inexperienced rookie Ministers start to wield their power

  15. Anonymous says:

    Did he jump or was he pushed?

    • Anonymous says:

      The appointment of his successor will tell you all you need to know. Watch this space…

      • Neverwannabeacivilservant says:

        I guarantee 100% his successor will be an “actor” probably for two years or more. Govt complains of lack of succession planning for Caymanians in the private sector, but the Civil Service has by far the worst record in this area.

    • Anonymous says:

      This Govt and the politicians certainly don’t want any Chief officers or civil servants who are strong and unable to be intimated or bullied into doing what is being demanded- whether that is right or wrong. Even less so with what they view as a white expat.
      Good on you alan. Thank you for your service.
      You always stood your ground, said what you had to say and did what was right, despite all the intimidation.

      1
      1

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.