Mac’s role in ministry trade trips unexplained
(CNS): The reason why McKeeva Bush (WBW) was part of the Cayman Islands delegation on several overseas trips in relation to agricultural policy when he was serving as speaker of the House remains a mystery. According to records released in response to a freedom of information request, at least one trip where Bush was invited by Minister Jay Ebanks was paid for by the public purse and several others appear to have been paid for from other sources, but there is no indication why Bush was included in the delegations.
The speaker, as he was at the time, is said to have travelled with Ebanks to Honduras, Jamaica and Spain in relation to the work the agriculture ministry is doing to form the current government’s policy on food security.
Bush was made speaker in exchange for his support of the PACT Government in the wake of the unclear 2021 election result and the subsequent horsetrading, but he was never part of the PACT team and did not caucus with them. However, it is no secret that Jay Ebanks and Bush are close and the veteran politician used his influence over Ebanks to upset the first effort Panton made to form a government of independents without the member for West Bay West.
According to the documents released Monday, the only trip considered official travel by the ministry, where it paid CI$2,000 for Bush to be part of the delegation, was to Honduras in June this year. While correspondence implies that Minister Ebanks had invited Bush, there is nothing that documents the reasons why he needed to go.
The ministry said there were no records regarding the other trips, and while staff were aware Bush had travelled with the minister on previous occasions, they were not paid for by the agriculture ministry. CNS also asked the House of Parliament for any details of trips paid for by that authority for the speaker to travel with the agricultural ministry, but the information manager said that no related documents were held by them.
The spending for the trip to Honduras, which was in total less than $10,000, was authorised by Chief Officer Eric Bush, who was also part of the delegation that included the minister’s personal assistant and the senior policy advisor. In email correspondence about the visit, Eric Bush indicated that the minister had invited McKeeva Bush, and a formal invitation was also sent to him. However, none of that correspondence documents any justification for Bush accompanying the minister.
According to an official press release at the time, the exploratory mission to Honduras was to establish direct agricultural trade links with that country to strengthen Cayman’s food and nutrition security.
“We largely depend on the United States for our fruits, produce and other goods,” the minister had said. “With the increasing cost of living, the government is committed to exploring various avenues to lessen the burden for the people of the Cayman Islands. We are looking to establish and promote a direct shipping route between the Cayman and Honduras later this year.”
While in Honduras, the delegation went to a Chamber of Commerce Expo in La Ceiba and toured several dairy farms, meat packing plants and an aggregate plant in San Pedro Sula and the Port of Cortes. They also visited the Port of Cabotaje in La Ceiba.
There was no mention in the release that Bush had attended or why.
See the documents in the CNS Library.
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
Mac – the delegation’s concierge 💃🎲🍸💰
Pretty rotten all round really.
They own the businesses, they own the minimum wage slaves, they have a vested interest in keeping it worst than its ever been because their Filipino guard will save them, because the Donkey john john wont be breathalysed, Mack wont be held accountable, Kenny B the COCAINE DEALER and police assaulter will keep you in your place. He should be in the dog city slums away from all of us but his Jamaican and business handlers have him on a tight leash.
List of alleged crimes by our politicians.
John Johns Wife / girlfriend lock down crap
John John drink driving no breathalysers
Jamaica Bush – too many to count
Kenneth Bryan – Assault and Cocaine
Ebanks and his Soil shit in Northside
I don’t get it. CIG doesn’t import food. Surely the only people who needed to go were Kirks/Fosters/Hurleys etc…
We don’t need them to go just to set the prices. We need proper government policies and for quality control. It is government that is responsible for the health and education of the population, not the private sector.
McKeeva told Jay, “Wear stripes, it makes you look slimmer”!
Cayman wake up “says not to this people” that’s the representation you want ….is sad …..
Change the voting system and they all will be gone! District voting keeps them in power.
Yup. this sh.t show was elected, same as the last, and the one before that. No sympathy from here. Insanity = doing the something over, and over and expecting different results. Immaturity = not accepting responsibility for what you do.
His Excellency, President for Life, I, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, CBE, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular
can only marvel at the level of corruption in the glorious Cayman Islands. I am but an amateur standing in the shadows of complete masters of their nefarious trade.
Oh, I think we can guess exactly why Bush was on these taxpayer-paid-for trips.
Did the taxpayer pay for local expenses and entertainment?
Mac’s role is whatever Mac wants as Wayne is only Premier as long as Mac allows. All Wayne wants is the appearance of power and the Premier’s title, Mac is the the real power in this UDPACT government.
Good ol’ Mac! Not only has his snout in the trough still but both front trotters too!
A Jamaican popping home to see his third world friends in Jamrock at the Caymanian expense? go figure, who would have thought it.
It’s like the dog eat dog world of Jamaica and Honduras isn’t compatible with the first world sensibilities of old Cayman.
Old Cayman is gone. It’s over. Accept it. Give it 10 years and we will see. The tourists will be gone, the millionaires will be gone, we will be an all inclusive walled garden resort loving, casino fetishizing Jamaica Light except with the worst of Jamaica in terms of things to do and see.
This is happening all over the world. Politicians are selling out their nations for their own gain. WHY ARE WE IMPORTING THE POOREST PEOPLE INTO THE WORLD WHISLT KEEPING THE WAGE SO LOW? WHY DO WE HAVE NO CONSUMER LAWS? NO RENTAL LAWS? NO TRAFFIC LAWS? the list goes on.
Our foreign politicians are absolutely committed to filling their pockets at our expense because they wont have to live with the consequences. THE MESSAGE.
They own the businesses, they own the minimum wage slaves, they have a vested interest in keeping it worst than its ever been because their Filipino guard will save them, because the Donkey john john wont be breathalysed, Mack wont be held accountable, Kenny B the COCAINE DEALER and police assaulter will keep you in your place. He should be in the dog city slums away from all of us but his Jamaican and business handlers have him on a tight leash.
List of alleged crimes by our politicians.
John Johns Wife / girlfriend lock down crap
John John drink driving no breathalysers
Jamaica Bush – too many to count
Kenneth Bryan – Assault and Cocaine
Ebanks and his Soil shit in Northside
I can’t even be bothered listing the rest because it’s boring. Imagine voting for a bunch of high school, prefect dickheads and thinking they would do anything for anybody on this Island. Scum the lot of them.
And they ALL were elected by voters. Take ownership for allowing the corruption to flourish.
You mean voters that can only vote in the district they live in. Change the voting system to one man one vote.
Kenny’s crimes aren’t allegations. He was convicted for them. But can still stand for parliament because, hey, we don’t care if we have convicted criminals representing us as king s they are multi generational.
And now I just came from the bank (Butterfield) who is imposing exchange controls on the withdrawal of USD cash. They are taking a cool 1.5% on the withdrawal. And CIMA smiles.
yep even from your USD accounts…..been with them 20+ years but now moving everything to Scotia.
What?
well put:
It’s like the dog eat dog world of Jamaica and Honduras isn’t compatible with the first world sensibilities of old Cayman.
Bravo 9.58 for saying it like it is.
Shame on Caymanian voters.
correct
Flying around the world spending your money guys that what he is doing.
Friends jolly outings while you all protect him to the max haha
Enjoy
Don’t blame the politicians, blame the voters.
The voters in West Bay are not the brightest lights in the window.
Been that way for a long way. Sorry to say.
Brightest lights ? That viewpoint seems counterintuitive to the original (9:58) poster’s opinion. Who was spot on.
I thought we’re all caymanians but do explain how west bay voters differ from the rest of us?
Bring some context in and don’t just drop Ambiguous statements and flee.
There are no constituencies that can be proud of their MP, but the voters of WBW do deserve special recognition for consistently and repeatedly electing McKeeva, in the face of multiple scandals that really ought to have disbarred him from ever holding any elected office.
How about this for context? Unna Fool Fool
1:32, The context is easy. Have you been following the antics of McKeeva the past 2 decades? He has all his current and former colleagues beaten by a country mile.
There is a reason why McKeeva is by far the longest serving member in Caymanian political history. But he is a God in West Bay.
McKeeva is the leader of the pack and the pack is large. That is the context, but you need to pay attention.
We did not vote these people in for government. It’s the horse trading that screwed the voters and made the current government.
You will note the supposed police investigation and breach of probation has gone very quiet.
Nothing further will be done.
Further – you think any steps were taken at all other than a press release?
Mac is the Political Proffessor for Jonnay, Dwayne and Kenny.
To date they seem to be following the teaching even down to the life size signs.
Mac will be for us long after he is gone, he is going no where he will always be in the powerful position.
It’s Caymanian voters that keep electing these uneducated self serving idiots, so da wa ya get.
The lack of public outrage serves only to encourage these unemployable fools to dig deeper into the public purse.
Cayman getting screwed by the people they elected to serve them.
In West Bay there was a clear choice in the last election.
They voted for the uneducated self serving guy over the educated decent Caymanian.
Says it all about West Bay.
CIG has strict rules on spending government money on alcohol – not sure that there is any policy regarding XXXXX. As we found out during the infamous credit card/casino case, if CIG does not have a strict written policy against spending the people’s money on something, then whatever that something is, is OK.
What are these strict rules? Every govt function I have attended serves alcohol.
The alcohol rules apply mainly to overseas travel. In Cayman the only rule is that Ministers get to go to the front of the free booze line all the time.
You should see the expensive wines they drink at one of Cayman’s leading waterfront restaurants…senior civil servant leads the way and we pay for these shameless buffoons .
South Church Street massive!
Mac’s role – having a good time on the government tab!
Panton really did sell his soul to become Premier!
It was a good deal for him – he gets to be Premier and we pay the price both in money and in the form of all the sh@t we have to swallow from this useless government.
Literally.
CNS: Thank you for shining a spotlight on an apparent lack of consideration.
Civil Service: Please take the opportunity of this spotlight to create/update processes so that justifications for official travel (all decisions really) are recorded.
We can always argue about the justifications/decisions later, but without them there is no leg for anyone to stand on.
CNS Library: Please add a Menu” selection for FOIs, then for each FOI put all released records and all correspondence from the submission to the end of the exhange of emails / contacts and records release for that FOI.
Seeing the many informative FOIs you have done will help to show us how FOIs are done and the attitude of government towards FOI requests.
Please continue to be as viligent in 2023 as you have been in all the previous years. Without CNS government and politicians would have covered up much information.
A partially uninformed Caymanian seeking TRUTH.
CNS: Thank you! I don’tknow if I’ll have time to do all that you suggest but adding FOI to the index is a good idea.
Glad that someone has the foresight to look for an alternative food supply route. Not only for possible savings, but for security and continuity. Let’s hear how fruitful the trip was. finance does seem to have accountability for authorized trips in hand. I would like to understand how the government would introduce its choice of suppliers to the marketplace in a free-enterprise economy.
You really believe Jay Ebanks is going to discover an untapped food resource that the local importers haven’t considered over the years? Cheap pineapples in Honduras aren’t cheap by the time they find their way to Cayman. Those trips aren’t about pineapples. Pawpaws, Pumpum, and Chocho maybe. But not pineapples.
Relax people, it was all a couple of trips to get some new china wear for the Big Mac.
Featuring Dumb and Dumber.
How will McKeeva survive when he can no longer feed at the trough?
By tagging on to Jay’s coat tails apparently
Mac is now part of the PACT Backbench and will soon be made a Parliamentary Secretary at an increased pay. He is now free to feed, travel, scrounge or whatever else he wants to do, and now he will caucus with the Government, so he is in deeper than ever before. Shame on you Wayne, your one term as Premier will forever have a huge Mac sized stain on it!!!
Mac will remain a pure Government backbencher (not a Parliamentary Secretary), who is not bound by collective responsibility.
He will become a consultant to developers and real estate agents.
He has so many favors to cash in.
Wasting days and wasting money!
Approved by Eric Bush…who also went on the trip..?
Is there no one who can ask if this expenditure is justified…?…Wayne ?…anyone.?
LOL … can’t make this $@#%^& up …
Some things don’t need to be explained.
CNS your comment is correct that Jay and McKeeva are close. McKeeva supported Jay’s grandmother on a UDP ticket. Not sure why voters believed otherwise. Jay has a horrible mentor in McKeeva and is emulating his antics. Monkey see monkey do.
Reminds me of the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz who said “if I only had a brain”
another glorious day for cig and the civil service…..zzzzzzzzz
$10,000 for a trip to Honduras? Did they rent out an entire hotel for each person?
It’s not the hotel that’s cost so much money. It’s the assets.
Those two need lots of food and drinks!
What goes on in La Ceiba, stays in La Ceiba.
With enough penicillin
Penicillin is allergic to Mac.
Usual BS. All these people supposed to have our best interests at heart really only give a damn about themselves and their own lifestyle and wealth.