Consumer Council chair commits to representing people
(CNS): George Ebanks, the chair of the newly established Consumer Council, has told CNS that he is committed to consulting with the public and ensuring their concerns are conveyed to the Utility Regulation and Competition Office (OfReg), which created this new body to protect the rights of consumers. Ebanks said he would not allow the council to become just another government spin-off entity that doesn’t make a difference.
He said it would be proactive and seek out the real views of the people regarding their concerns dealing with the entities regulated by OfReg.
Seven members of the public were recently appointed by OfReg to the Cayman Islands’ first Consumer Council with the primary purpose of representing consumers and protecting their rights by identifying and advising OfReg on issues affecting them across the utilities sector.
The council’s role includes gathering statistical dta and providing reports and proposals to OfReg on consumer issues.
Speaking on behalf of the council, Ebanks explained that this is not a formal committee of OfReg and would operate autonomously, acting on behalf of consumers in making proposals and providing advice to OfReg for action.
“Under my chairmanship, the council will aim to discharge its duties by seeking out the views of each and every consumer of these islands. To be successful, we must be an active conduit through which the average ‘man on the street’ consumer can, and must, have a seat at the table of regulatory compliance and transparency,” he said in a press release.
Speaking to CNS following the announcement of his appointment, Ebanks said it was essential that the council goes out into the community and seeks public input about people’s experiences and what they consider the priorities for consumer protection. He said the council was committed to becoming the voice of consumer complaints and would represent them across the Cayman Islands by seeking out information through, among other things, a series of town hall meetings in all of the districts, which will begin very soon.
Ebanks said he wanted the council to be a true advocate for the people and to actually spearhead the action needed to address the issues consumers have. He explained that the remit is to focus on utilities and fuel prices, a long-held concern of Ebanks, who took to the streets in 2015 to protest prices at the pump and the way the oil suppliers set rates. However, he expects a “tremendous amount of participation from the public” and believes it’s unlikely this will be confined to these areas.
“We expect people will be concerned about many other areas where consumers have concerns about prices and the council could, in time, also become a conduit to government about those wider issues,” he said.
The council will report directly to OfReg CEO Peter Gough, who said the regulator had a statutory obligation to represent and protect the rights of the consumer in the utility sectors. “The new Consumer Council is a crucial element of ensuring we do so effectively, and we look forward to working with the chair and the rest of the council members in fulfilling our responsibilities to consumers in the Cayman Islands,” he said.
Joining Ebanks as council members are Tony Catalanotto, Judy Dilbert, J. Paul Meyer, Megan Ritch, Alanna Warwick-Smith and Natalie Holder-Wellington, who were appointed after the regulator issued an invitation for people interested in joining the council in September last year.
OfReg is still looking for a representative for Cayman Brac and Little Cayman who is based in the Sister Islands and is asking interested people to email Daniel.lee@ofreg.ky.
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Category: Politics, Private Sector Oversight
Meanwhile…the banks continue to pillage and plunder.
The new council should be expanded to protect consumers in all markets, NOT just utilities!
One of many many examples of commercial enterprises fleecing the public: a $10 “service charge” at CNB for a non account holder to cash a CNB cheque is piracy! The only “service” they render in this case is screwing the public. Government by not having protections in place is complicit in the banks’ piracy. The bank decision makers and their loyal crewe–the Panton-PACTless Clown Car–should all wear black eye patches and begin sentences with “Arrggh me matey…”
The banks must pay the teller for attending to cashing the cheque for you. If you are a customer you are paying for that service through loan interest, bank fees, etc – if you are not a customer – are you expecting to get that service for free then?
You expect to just waltz in with your CNB cheque, cash it and leave? Then the bank and its real customers have to pay the teller, the ink for the stamp, the internet and IT systems (among other expenses) for cashing your cheque for you…
If Banks don’t want to cash cheques then they shouldn’t issue them.
sooooo clueless it’s scary
CIMA [are supposed to] regulate the banks. Totally agree with you about the banks.
In other news, landlords will be allowed to continue to screw renters in Cayman with impunity.
Now I do hope they address solar power and how it is held in the hands of a monopoly that is CUC and the other set is the solar power companies. Individuals should be allowed with full rights to install solar panels themselves with sign off by a certified electrician if one chooses to take that road.
As it stands you cant use solar panels unless you’re completely off the grid because the solar panel program is closed indefinitely.
Help! Poor people issues:
My favorite Gas station chicken tenders are now cut into Thirds size, for the same price per portion.
Supermarket prefer to throw away the lil sandwich and salads now at 8pm, instead of selling them as they did for $1.
Supermarkets saving more by closing an hour early since covid, but all the prices gone up.
How to start the Consumer work..suggestions:
1- please share the CPU Basket of Goods, and then revise them to be more relevant today, and allow shoppers to interact/share info weekly
2 – Please educate us on WHAT we are consuming, and the health implications, with a corrective educ campaign.
(eg. Fast foods – oils salt sugar fats processed meats. Diabetes, obesity etc)
AND – Options – healthier fruits, salads, no salt non-fried home cooking. Fasting. New diets.
AND – Remind consumers and stores that all staple foods are DUTY FREE, and prices should reflect such!
This is consumer protection in relation to utilities and telecommunications regulatory area, not groceries and health foods.
Ummm..fix The COST OF LIVING please.
Good God.. how people are suffering and losing hope daily with these slave wages??!!
Five things.
1. Fix the damn dump
2. Ban leaf blowers
3. Disband OfReg
4. Cull the damn cats and chickens
5. Tear down those illegal billboards
Looking at the appointees, none of which appear to have “Pit Bull” instincts nor the background and training in consumer advocacy. So sorry George Ebanks I do not believe that the group of you would have any impact.
It was an open call, why didn’t you put yourself forward?
George, I hope you look into why we cant get the regular grade of 87 octane gasoline. If the oil companies dont have the tankage for all three grades then it would be better to stock the regular and premium grades. Im sure 90% of cars in cayman are designed to run on 87 octane. And yes I know it is available at refuel but that contains ethenol and that is nothing but trouble.
No one will take this seriously with George in charge not with his track record. OFREG cannot even elect a proper board. What a mess
@10:43am. Sorry but we hold George Ebanks in high regard. Have known him for over 50 years. Same good guy. Perhaps you have abit of jealousy running deep in your conceited heart!??
what another waste of time and money
do us all a fovour and get rid of ofreg….and its self appointed talk-shops.
nothing has or will ever be ahcieved with ofreg.
Do you understand what OffReg is put in place to do?
Who will license petrol and utility providers if there is no office to do it?
Who will ensure that gas stations safely store the highly flammable and explosive gasoline?
Would you prefer to pull up to a pump with a car full of children and not have a body that ensures pumps are safe and tanks are to code so that you do not have to worry about being blown up when buying a chocolate at the gas station?
Worked perfectly fine the many decades prior to OfReg being established. Volumes more cost effective too.
I second that! OfReg is just another way to spend your money. What has OfReg ever done for YOU?
I can’t think of anything they ever done for me.
It’s not happening now!
People doing the work are not qualified!
Same ones that burnt the terminal down.
Inspectors are also not qualified to do the inspections!!!! Lol
It’s all a joke 🤣
Key safety facts: OfReg sub-contracts J&R Janitorial to be the fuel sample collectors. No requirement to certify storage or disclose identities of stations that routinely fail in several categories. There are failing fuel quality samples lab certified from Bureau Veritas. Only the airport AV1 requires OfReg pass for FAA/CIAA continuity. Station owners can source from any refiner and have some individual discretion to dilute the fuel being served. No visible remedial action for consuming public has ever been taken in the history of OfReg, or its predecessor, Fuel (profits)Inspectorate. Also, several times a day, there are members of the public that are smoking cigarettes while using the pumps at the station. 95% are using their phones in their free hand.
I hope George won’t get fed up and resign for the same reasons that Dr Lockhart got fed up and resigned from his respective board. All the best.
No comparison at all.
It’s not just fuel prices – which seem rigged to only move in one direction, and independent of refiner and delivered COGS pricing metrics and with high levels of government-sanctioned collusion – it’s also the quality audit, transparency and followup action.
OfReg’s redone, and mostly non-functional website has now removed the dropdown fuel publications section which previously transparently published Bureau Veritas Fuel Analysis Reports. Within the last period of 2019-2020 reports were a multitude of lab-certified failing grades, plus evidence of alarming unpunished consumer fraud by at least one seven mile beach gas station selling regular 5000 pump fuel as 8000 “premium” on the same J&R collection date for a booked theft/spread of $0.23 per gallon.
Retailer names faithfully redacted into OfReg alphanumeric codes to of course protect the sacred business owners from consumer awareness. OfReg is protecting the owners by deleting this lab evidence because they don’t work for consumers. The regulator forms part of the predatory landscape we need to navigate every day. The first item for this Council to understand is that there is no public trust in the OfReg Regulator, outside continued record profits for business owners, and insulating them from consequences.
Where do Cayman consumers send copies of these reports when we can’t even count on the RCIPS/ACC/DPP to follow up on basic wrongdoings?
good luck with that! wa…u got ant against golliath! lol
so OfReg has created a council to report on what OfReg was created to do. You can’t make this stuff up.
OfReg are so conflicted and nose-blind to consumer impacts that they need to promote a fabricated Council that purports to redirect efforts towards the obvious and deliberate action/inaction of the ineffectual regulator hired to do that job. Except this Council is being helmed by their own internal dinosaur so it stands to have little material impact on OfReg internal process and predatory utilities and businesses, beyond pretending to demonstrate a limited willingness to field concerns over obvious consumer impacts. If anything, its formation will serve to ratify and embolden all the wrongs we’ve been experiencing. Until proven otherwise, another sham construct, courtesy of the CIG….and we wonder why we’re on watch lists.
Oh Lord, help us! George?! Out of 80,000 people, we get George?!
Yes man if there ever was one.
Would be great if somehow george could get the insurance companies/cartel under this Council! Stranger things have happened so don’t call me stupid.
Not to mention the taxis
The price gouging here is crazy, at all levels of business. I spend the absolute minimum in local stores and would rather go without.
Nothing will change here. Consumer rights don’t exist here.
Another political optics Council who’s conflicted Chair freely admits he doesn’t know why it was formed, or what it should care about.
OfReg is still looking for a representative for Cayman Brac and Little Cayman who is based in the Sister Islands and is asking interested people to email Daniel.lee@ofreg.ky.
I really hope these people don’t end up becoming much more than frustration pits and a buffer for OfReg and their historical inadequacy, they’re certainly braver than I am. 💪🏽
More boards but no change to life for us. Wonderland.
Our lives are seeing lots of change; whether its the change we want or do not want is the question.
The first step to enhancing ones life is upskilling, qualifications and increased learning – it opens doors to better jobs, higher pay and networking opportunities.
If you expect to have a better life only from Government passing hand-out laws and policies then that is exactly why you groan.
I like the idea but XXXXX it loses credibility with him at the helm. Nobody in government will take this seriously because no one is ever accountable for anything in the civil service or elected MP’s. We need recall provisions in legislation to hold their feet to the fire.
Welcome to the Lodge
Peter Gough and George Ebanks to protect consumer rights.
Cayman gets more laughable every day😂
Wasn’t one of the members a realtor who used a clients deposit money a few years ago? If so how could this person be on a consumer rights board? Please clarify CNS.
CNS: No, different person. You are thinking of this, I believe.
CNS is correct in the confusion of Toni Paolini and Tony Catalanotto. XXXX
CNS: I’m unable to verify any of the X’d part.
Wasn’t Mr Gough supposed to be an interim appointment? He’s getting on in years so are they advertising for a new director?
What a waste of money and time.
Just have government set maximum prices on certain items, like they do in some European countries.
Advising counsels is just making the public believe somebody cares.
I know a few retailers on this island and they simply don’t know what to do with the cash. Supermarkets, gas stations, you name it.
How much does this waste of time cost us?
FYI: Government does not pay for, or fund Offreg, its Board or its Council.
Please get informed before posting
You can’t even spell OfReg. Educate yourself before posting.
A typo is now a spelling error and sign of illiteracy? Dear me.
Wasn’t a typo. Next excuse.
Moist people aren’t offended by the occasional typo.
Only $7,000 per annum for the entire Consumer Council. I’d say that’s a fair amount to finally get transparent representation of the people’s concerns as it relates to OfReg’s area of regulation. It’s up to you to use it!
Hard to tell right now. It might take a few meetings before they agree on how much they should be paid for performing this highly technical and complex task.
People are volunteering their time for lunch money. No one is getting rich off this one.