Last minute witness change on Day two of PAC hearing on anti-corruption report

There was a last minute change to the witness schedule on Thursday (31 January), as Public Accounts Committee hearings continued on the Auditor General’s “Fighting corruption in Cayman” report.

Rosie Whittaker-Myles, the Chair of the Standards in Public Life Commission Board, postponed her appearance in the Legislative Assembly.

This came one day after Cabinet Secretary Samuel Rose told the Committee that Premier Hon. Alden McLaughlin was reviewing the ethics law.

This law was passed back in 2014, but it’s yet to come into force. Its purpose is to keep officials in public life in check.

Ms. Myles was due to appear on Day two of the hearings, but PAC Chair Hon. Ezzard Miller announced at the start of proceedings that she had left island the day before due to an emergency.

Instead, the Committee heard from the two other scheduled witnesses.

Anti-corruption Commission Chair Richard Coles said he was broadly satisfied with existing anti-corruption provisions, but there are some technical issues remaining.

“There will be some further suggestions that we’ll bring forward, but they are relatively minor things that arise because, as the law was, the RCIPS was investigating corruption offences, whereas now we have investigators are part of the ACC and some of the powers have not transferred as well as they should have done,” Mr. Coles declared.

Mr. Miller said Ms. Whittaker-Myles will have her appearance before the PAC re-scheduled. There was no date given for her appearance.