Bryan: Ministers need more say in CS recruitment

(CNS): Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan wants Cabinet ministers to have more power in government’s hiring of Caymanians because people expect their MPs to help them get work. Speaking on Radio Cayman yesterday, he admitted that the current immigration system had created challenges for local people, from the increasing population to the housing crisis. He said private sector employers were not playing their part by hiring and promoting Caymanians, and ministers should be able to call out the civil service when it also overlooked local workers and recruited overseas.

When he appeared on For the Record on Thursday, Bryan said that “drastic measures” were needed to reform immigration, but it required the government’s caucus to agree. He said some changes that had already been agreed upon were coming.

The minister said the problem of people not hiring local workers had a far-reaching impact and that employers had an obligation to give local people work to support society. But he also voiced concern about the lack of powers ministers have when it comes to opportunities in government and the promotion of local people. He said they no longer had any influence over the civil service, even though it’s one of the country’s biggest employers.

Bryan said constituents expect MPs to help them find work in government. However, they can no longer do this because the elected arm cannot get involved in human resources in government and could be sanctioned if they do, as was the case with one minister. He said he was very cautious about making any comment to any civil servant about recruitment to avoid any allegation of interference.

Once in government, he realised he did not have the power to meet his constituents’ expectations. Even if Cabinet were to propose legislation requiring the government to get work permits for foreign civil servants, the governor could stop the act by refusing to assent to it, the minister told the radio audience.

Bryan said he planned to discuss this issue with the governor because trying to help Caymanians get work in the private sector was also very difficult. This is one of the main reasons why he has been so vocal about immigration reform, which he added “was desperately needed” to at least reduce the number of permits that are granted.

He said that politicians were unable to play any part in controlling the number of foreign workers hired, trained or promoted by the public sector, even when Caymanians are overlooked, and were also unable to influence private sector employers because the business community insists they should be able to hire who they want. But he said that was only true to a certain degree, which was why immigration reform was necessary.

“If we are too loose with immigration policies… and if it’s easier to find a non-Caymanian, then you are going to find a non-Caymanian,” he said, adding that employers “should be required to find Caymanians regardless of the ills they come with”.

Bryan argued that if it were not so easy to recruit expatriate workers, then employers would have to find, hire, train and promote local people. “Immigration is related to so many problems that we have,” he added.

Changes to the immigration law are coming this year, but Bryan said he was not the person to say what they are because the labour minister should make that announcement. But he said there was a power struggle between politicians and the administrative branch of government, which meant they could do nothing to address the problems in the public sector.

He argued that the civil service should give preference to Caymanians and the deputy governor should not have the sole power to make decisions about hiring overseas workers over locals. He said the civil service should not be exempt from the screening and requirements of a permit system.

In both the private and public sectors, he said, politicians were prevented from assisting their people because of the pressure from the business community and their profit margins on the one hand and the constitutional exclusion of politicians from the civil service recruitment process on the other.

Acknowledging that the political arm of government should not have absolute power over the civil service, he said there was room for more shared responsibility, and it was necessary to reform the legislation to make management more accountable when they put expatriates ahead of local staff.

The minister accepted that politicians should not interfere by placing people who support them in favourable positions but said there was room to open the door about discussing the issues when Caymanians are overlooked or special favours appear to be given to expatriates.