The policy of having security guards for Ministers and other government officials would continue for the present, the Legislative Assembly was told.
Mr. McLaughlin. Photo: File |
Chief Secretary George McCarthy said the policy would exist as long as there was a threat to their lives based on a threat assessment by the Royal Cayman Islands Police.
Answering a question from Opposition Leader McKeeva Bush in the House on Thursday, Mr. McCarthy said he did not have the information at hand as to the cost of the guarding.
Mr. McCarthy said he could not elaborate on how far it extended.
But, he said, it would include people who were under threat whether they were Ministers, the judiciary or the legal department.
Education questions
Education Minister Alden McLaughlin on Friday refused to name anyone who might be incompetent and not doing their job in the Department of Education.
Answering a question from Opposition Leader McKeeva Bush, Mr. McLaughlin told the Legislative Assembly that he was not naming individuals and would not disclose matters of a confidential nature.
Mr. McLaughlin said he had expressed concerns about leadership and management and that his comments had been about the quality of the service.
In answer to another education question from Opposition Leader Mr. Bush, Mr. McLaughlin said the recruitment and management of teaching staff was presently a source of controversy.
Principals complained they had little or no say on who came to their schools.
As part of the exercise to give more autonomy to schools, principals would play an increasingly important role in staff selection and management, he told the House.
VIP lounge
There was no new protocol regarding the use of the VIP lounge at the airport, Chief Secretary George McCarthy told the Legislative Assembly.
Mr. McCarthy said the Governor, Ministers, MLAs and Chief Justices were allowed to use the lounge when they were on official business.
He said he felt it was time for discussions on some of the protocols.
Mr. McCarthy also said he believed the time had arrived when people travelling on the official business of the country should be afforded the proper courtesies when being searched at the airport.
He said he had found himself subjected to rigorous searching at the airport and wondered why, if he was on the official business of the country, he could not be trusted.
Mr. McCarthy was answering a question on Thursday from Opposition Leader McKeeva Bush, who told the House he had never used the VIP lounge and had not seen the guidelines about it.
Constitution timetable
No firm timetable has yet been set for the constitutional modernisation of the Cayman Islands, the Legislative Assembly was told.
Leader of Government Business Kurt Tibbetts, replying to a question from Opposition Leader McKeeva Bush said that, as yet, there was no new timetable.
Mr. Tibbetts told the House on Wednesday that when government members visit London shortly they intend to have preliminary discussions with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office with a view to developing a timetable with regard to consultation meetings.
Amendment
A government motion to make an amendment to the Development Plan was passed in the Legislative Assembly on Friday.
The motion, introduced to the House by Leader of Government Business Kurt Tibbetts, refers to registration section, West Bay Beach South, block 12D parcel 32 and 33.
The move allows for rezoning from mangrove buffer, low density residential and neighbourhood commercial to hotel/tourism and marine commercial.
The parcels of land are said to have a combined total of some 36 acres and are situated between the Hyatt Regency Resort and the Cayman Shores Development.
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