Senior level Cayman Islands civil servants should be prohibited from seeking political office in the election immediately following their resignation or retirement.
Mr Bush |
That recommendation was one of several made in a report by a Commission of Enquiry looking into accusations that former Ministry of Tourism Permanent Secretary Charles Clifford improperly took files from his office upon his resignation from that post in July 2004.
The commission agreed with claims made by Opposition Leader McKeeva Bush that Mr. Clifford gave some of that documentation to the press in an effort to help his own political aspirations and damage those of Mr. Bush’s United Democratic Party.
The UDP did lose the May 2005 elections in which Mr. Clifford successfully ran for office in Bodden Town district, just ten months after resigning his permanent secretary post.
‘There is, to my mind, something disquieting and uncomfortable about a situation where a permanent secretary (a position now known as a chief officer) who has been working closely with a minister of a particular party at one stage should be able to resign, taking with him political information which he has obtained in the course of his employment, and then be entitled to stand very shortly afterwards for election perhaps to the opposition party and as a political opponent of his former minister,’ Commissioner of Enquiry Sir Richard Tucker wrote in his review of the matter.
Mr. Tucker, a former English High Court Justice, recommended that the prohibition only be applied to Class C (chief officer level and above) civil servants. He said more junior-level government employees should not face a similar prohibition against seeking political office because their access to information is more restricted.
The commissioner also said he did not want to place too broad a restriction on the rights of any Caymanian citizen to stand for election.
‘(Those below chief officer level) will not have personal responsibility for the advice given to ministers,’ Mr. Tucker’s report read. ‘They are less likely to be entrusted with politically sensitive information.’
The recommendations concerning senior civil servants are much more restrictive than those suggested last year by Mr. Bush in a private member’s motion before the legislative assembly. The opposition leader proposed a one-year hiatus on seeking election for all civil servants who resign from their positions. That motion was defeated by the PPM government.
‘I am happy that the (Commission of Enquiry) made the recommendation,’ Mr. Bush said. ‘You cannot continue to have senior civil servants being able to leave and run for office without a good break.’
According to Commissioner Tucker’s suggestion, a chief officer who left the civil service in 2006 would not be eligible to stand for an election in the Cayman Islands until the 2013 general elections. Mr. Clifford, who resigned in 2004, would have had to wait until May 2009 to run for office.
Governor Stuart Jack said he would have the attorney general and chief secretary review the commission’s findings and make their own recommendations to Cabinet. A change in the requirements or eligibility to seek political office would have to be approved by the Legislative Assembly.
Mr. Clifford, the current Tourism Minister, did not comment directly on the recommendation about civil servants contained in the commissioner’s report. However, he did imply that, under different circumstances he might have stayed in the civil service post.
‘I would probably still be a civil servant today had (former) Governor Dinwiddy taken action when I brought (certain) matters to his attention in 2003/04,’ a statement from Mr. Clifford read.
Minister Clifford has said he attempted to inform the former Governor about issues related to wrong-doing by the prior UDP government administration before his resignation from the Ministry of Tourism.
The Commission of Enquiry disagreed with Mr. Clifford’s claims.
‘It is doubtful whether Mr. Clifford did complain to the Governor (Dinwiddy) in any meaningful way, and it is certain he did not complain to anyone else in authority,’ the commission’s conclusions read. ‘There is the timing of his disclosure to the press, which was many months afterwards and at a time when he was actively engaged in political campaigning for the forthcoming election.’
Mr. Clifford said the commission’s decision will make it more difficult for government whistleblowers to come forward in the future.
Caymanian Compass reporter Alan Markoff contributed to this story.
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