As further evidence of our government’s squandermania, read Wednesday’s front page Cayman Compass story on the Grand Court challenge filed by acting fire chief Rosworth McLaughlin, who claims he was wrongfully forced into early retirement.
Mr. McLaughlin alleges that Ministry of Home Affairs chief officer Eric Bush decided April 29 to force him to retire in order to “improve the efficiency of the Cayman Islands Fire Service,” but without allowing him the opportunity to defend himself, as outlined in the law.
On the other side, Mr. Bush says he made no such decision, and that Mr. McLaughlin has not officially been terminated and is still receiving a paycheck, pending the outcome of negotiations over a “settlement package.”
Has Mr. McLaughlin, as he claims, been wrongfully terminated? Or has he been in employment limbo (fully paid, with more to come) since being granted “extended sick leave” sometime this spring, as Mr. Bush claims?
We don’t know whose version of events is more troubling.
If Fire Chief McLaughlin is correct, then the situation bears an uncanny resemblance to that of another McLaughlin — government scientist Astley McLaughlin, who stopped working for the public sector in December 1998.
However, after the U.K. Privy Council ruled that he had been dismissed unlawfully, he was awarded full salary and benefits up to this budget year, when he finally reached the retirement age of 60.
For more than 15 years, Cayman’s government paid someone to do nothing. Literally. But it didn’t stop there.
Recall the trio of high-ranking civil servants placed on leave after the United Democratic Party took power in 2009. No, they weren’t dismissed, wrongfully or otherwise, just “placed on leave” — with full salary and benefits, of course.
One of the former chief officers, Angela Martins, drew paychecks until her retirement in 2011. The other two, Diane Montoya and Deborah Drummond, struck a deal with government to take early retirement effective July 1 of this year.
The full costs of the HR malpractice remains unknown because government is refusing to disclose the terms of that settlement. (Our sources tell us the numbers are in the millions.)
But let’s return to Fire Chief McLaughlin. If he’s correct, then government has done it again — and taxpayers will likely be on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars, again.
If he’s wrong, however, and it is Mr. Bush who is correct, then in some fundamental ways it’s even worse for taxpayers. How is it possible that the government cannot execute in a timely, efficient and professional manner an action that occurs in private organizations on a routine basis? How is it possible that government officials cannot get rid of someone whom they believe needs to be gone?
The reason, of course, is that when private businesses make mistakes, they pay for them. But when government makes mistakes, we pay.
The Compass believes regulations on employment decisions should be eased in both the private and public sectors. Employers — businesses and government agencies alike — must as a rule be able to control who they hire, who they promote and, yes, who they fire, regardless of immigration status, and independent from the political machinations of appointed boards or the civil service peerage.
The economics are inescapable: Nobody can afford in the long term to hand out paychecks to workers who don’t work. Not even government.
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Are they currently hiring, I will take any job and pay the for the work permit fee myself.