Tag: freedom of information
$45.5M spent since 2021 buying land for crown
(CNS): Since coming to office in 2021, the Cayman Islands Government, initially PACT and then UPM, has spent at least CI$45.5 million on acquiring more than 60 pieces of land, most of which were bought over the last 18 months. CI$12 million has been spent in Cayman Brac alone, over $2.1 million on Scranton Park […]
Ministry refuses release of study on proposed subsea cable
(CNS): The planning and infrastructure ministry has released some documents relating to the proposed new undersea communications cable and the recruitment of the project manager and team, as well as the basics of the CI$1.3 million contract with Cambridge Management Consultants. However, an external study, which CNS understands is the Outline Business Case, that should […]
Procedure still an issue 15 years after FOI law passed
(CNS): As Cayman marks Right To Know Day, Ombudsman Sharon Roulestone has said that last year, the number of freedom of information requests was above pre-pandemic levels after 452 were made to the government, the most in one year since 2018. As the public continues to make use of the law, managers are releasing more […]
DoT drip feed disclosure unacceptable, says Ombudsman
(CNS): The Office of the Ombudsman (OMB) has ordered the Department of Tourism to release details of the partnerships and sponsorship agreements it made with various overseas entities to promote the Cayman Islands to potential visitors between 2020 and 2022. More than 18 months after a local reporter made an FOI request for the records, […]
Health ministry takes a year to respond to FOI request
(CNS): The Ministry of Health and Wellness took more than a year to release a heavily redacted single email record in response to a freedom of information request by an individual seeking documents relating to a job application made to the Mosquito Research and Control Unit. Further delays in response to the Office of the […]
FOI requests pick back up after lockdown decline
(CNS): After a decline in requests during 2020 when the Cayman Islands was locked down and the borders closed, freedom of information applications increased last year from 230 to 426, according to statistics released by the Office of the Ombudsman. The report released yesterday to mark International Right to Know Day on 28 September showed […]
Cabinet ordered to release Smith Cove minutes
(CNS): Not everything that is documented in government’s Cabinet meetings can automatically be withheld from public scrutiny, Ombudsman Sandy Hermiston has found in her latest ruling. A freedom of information request made by Alric Lindsay for an extract of Cabinet minutes relating to the now cancelled Smith Barcadere project and the decision to waive planning […]
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 […]
Smith Cove committee kept no records
(CNS): A freedom of information request made by a CNS reader has revealed that the committee created to inform what would have been a very costly public project at Smith Barcadere (aka Smith Cove) kept no records. The applicant asked to see documents relating to the creation and membership of the committee, the agendas and […]
FOI request takes over a year
(CNS): In August 2018 CNS made a freedom on information request to the commerce ministry for a copy of a deal it had signed with TechCayman, a proposed digital platform that the ministry claimed would make Cayman the ‘Silicon Valley’ of the Caribbean. But when the ministry responded it released a very heavily redacted copy. […]
