Government oversight
Speaker refuses to lay PAC report on OfReg audit
(CNS): A Public Accounts Committee report on its hearings about a damning report on government’s utilities regulator by the Office of the Auditor General was not presented to the Legislative Assembly on Friday, as expected, after the speaker refused to lay the document. In an unusual move, House Speaker McKeeva Bush said he had not […]
Complaints about gov’t surge post lockdown
(CNS): The Office of the Ombudsman has reported a surge in complaints about government, including maladministration, as well as data protection complaints (which also covers the private sector) since the COVID-19 lockdown. Members of the public made 97 enquiries during July, August and September, 74 of which were placed under investigation. During this quarter the […]
School inspections to focus on local students
(CNS) The Office of Education Standards has published a new document that will guide the inspection of schools from the beginning of next year. The document builds on the framework published in June 2018 but has some significant changes, including the decision to single out and compare the achievement of Caymanian students. OES Director Peter […]
Key watchdog job in dispute
(CNS): Ombudsman Sandy Hermiston has said that her office is in discussions with Sharon Roulstone after confirming that the former WORC director has not returned to her job there. Roulstone was seconded to WORC weeks after she was appointed as deputy ombudsman, but since the two-year transfer ended this summer, Roulstone has not been allowed […]
FOI requests fall to lowest level
(CNS): Whether it is because government has made more documents available or because the process of making a freedom of information request is increasingly burdensome, the number of requests made for public records last year fell to its lowest ever level. From a high of 739 the year after the law was implemented, requests fell […]
Historic land records must be released
(CNS): The Lands and Survey department has been ordered to release records showing how one decision was made during the Cayman Islands’ cadastral survey in the 1970s over land ownership. In what could turn out to be an important case for local families who believe land was wrongly taken from them, the Office of the […]
Volunteers wanted to ‘police’ public servants
(CNS): The Governor’s Office has put out a call for civic-minded, fair and politically neutral accountants, lawyers and other professional volunteers who would like to be considered for a seat on the Commission for Standards in Public Life (CSPL). With the implementation of the law earlier this year, members of this commission will be in […]
Harris is new head of Anti-Corruption Commission
(CNS): Local attorney Sophia Harris has been appointed as the new chairperson of the Anti-Corruption Commission after the departure last month of Richard Coles. Harris has been a member of the ACC for four years and she takes over the leadership with around a dozen active cases still being investigated by the commission’s officers.
Finance ministry is the star of PAC ‘Oscars’
(CNS): The Ministry of Finance walked away with most of the special gongs handed out Thursday at the now annual Public Accounts Committee awards for government accountants. The idea of the bean-counters ‘Oscars’ is to publicly recognise civil servants who achieved on-time, unqualified accounts through audit after years of problems with the public finances.
Registrar told to stop collecting unlawful data
(CNS): The ombudsman has accused the registrar of companies of using a “blunt instrument” to collect information from people with no legal basis. In a recent enforcement order under the Data Protection Law, Sandy Hermiston told the registrar to stop collecting personal data from people who hold minority shares or voting rights in companies, outside […]
Ombudsman finds ‘serious issues’ with LT records
(CNS): Claims by the Department of Labour and Pensions that it wasn’t sure where some records were in response to a freedom of information request was “a serious issue”, Ombudsman Sandy Hermiston said in her latest appeal decision. Hermiston has ordered the DLP to release dozens of records dating back to 2014, which it had […]
