Outgoing ombudsman said offices should be separate
(CNS): Sandy Hermiston’s parting recommendation for the government is that the areas within the remit of the Office of the Ombudsman (OMB) should be separated. The outgoing ombudsman, who left the Cayman Islands in February this year, said in the 2021 Ombudsman Annual Report that the merger of the complaints and freedom of information commissioners with data protection, whistleblowing and police complaints may have cut administrative costs but it became “increasingly apparent” during her time here that the “challenge of administering five business lines is significant”.
Hermiston recommended that Cayman revert back to separate independent offices for the ombudsman, information commissioner, data protection commissioner and for police oversight. Many small countries and similar jurisdictions, such as Bermuda, have made the decision to fund separate independent offices, she said, as it “allows the offices to develop expertise and depth of resources in a single subject area”.
Designating one office to lead five important areas of oversight “dilutes the impact of the office on many different levels”, Hermiston said in her parting suggestion. “Having a variety of independent officers increases the opportunity for creative thinking and allows for different perspectives to inform government oversight.”
The former ombudsman said the government should consider separating the OMB into three separate offices, one dealing with maladministration and whistleblower protection, another for access to information and data protection, and a third for the oversight of public complaints about police conduct.
Noting the major reason for consolidating the offices was to minimise cost, she suggested that some of these offices could share administrative services, and even include the Office of the Auditor General. But she said, “In my opinion, cost savings should not be the determinative factor in these matters.”
The government’s decision to merge the offices was criticised by both Nicola Williams and Jennifer Dilbert, the commissioners at the time of complaints and information respectively, as well as by Jan Liebaers, the current deputy ombudsman in the Information Rights Division, who all cautioned against it because of the very different functions each area.
Ezzard Miller, the MP for North Side at the time, resigned from his position as chair of the parliamentary oversight committee for the Office of the Complaints Commissioner because of concerns about merging the various offices.
The merger was just one recommendation that the Cayman Islands Government accepted from a 2014 report by Ernst & Young aimed at advising the CIG on cutting public spending. However, it has reportedly only saved the public purse around CI$80,000 per year in its $1 billion budget.
See the annual report in the CNS Library.
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Category: Government oversight, Politics
I don’t understand how Govt could turn a deaf ear to persons such as Ms N. Williams, and Ms J,. Dilbert regarding combining the offices. And, THEY KNOW what they are talking about as opposed to a consulting firm with a lot less expertise in the respective areas. Good luck to the current Ombudsman, Ms Rolston, who seems to leave a disaster behind her every time she heads an office.
You mean like the E&Y Report that said amalgamating ICTA, ERA, Fuels, & Water Regs would save the Cayman Islands Government $250,000? Out of that recommendation we got OfReg. Any reports evaluating the savings realized by OfReg’s creation since 2017?
cig does not do recommendations
They do however seem very receptive to words in their ear from politically favoured bobos, for a handsome ransom though.
She needs to just be quite as there is nothing wrong that we need any ombudsman or complaints commission. Our esteemed leaders and senior civil servants do a jam up job. And why waste money on these things and freedom of information requests. What you don’t know won’t hurt you. That is why we have all these fine leaders.
Sarcasm?
The same Ombudsman who wasted an absolute fortune on her own office and left under a cloud. Maybe the Governor could explain his investigation.
She is right!
The public users access to services, grouping of these functions together when each requires different skill did not serve the best public interest.
But then they knew that would be the result, because several politicans dislike these public benefitting good governance institutions uncover poor governance activities that the politicians want to keep hidden.
Spot on!
THIS is what happens when government hires accounting firms as consultants, who do not know or care to understand the public service, to advise government on structure of the public service. It’s also what happens when government cow-tows to a particular special interest group that is plainly interested in weakening the public service. I wonder what is going to be said now that the message has been delivered by one of our white saviors from foreign who everybody respects.
They’re actually consulting firms that have accounts these days and they earn more per year than Cayman’s GDP.
You mean like the E&Y Report that said amalgamating ICTA, ERA, Fuels, & Water Regs would save the Cayman Islands Government $250,000? Out of that recommendation we got OfReg. Any reports evaluating the savings realized by OfReg’s creation since 2017?