As the PACT government passed seven months in office, the code of conduct for parliamentarians promised “immediately” as part of the power-sharing agreement that saw McKeeva Bush return to the Speaker’s chair, is said to be in ‘draft’ mode and may not take effect until next year.
Government Information Services, in response to Cayman Compass queries on the code, could not definitively say when it will move to the implementation stage.
“It should be finalised and approved by year’s end or in January,” a GIS representative said.
The code is said to be on the agenda for the meeting of the Parliamentary Management Council in January.
The Compass asked the Premier’s Office for a status update, but was advised no comments on the code would be made at this time and that the draft would not be made public.
The issue of expected conduct for elected office holders was raised in recent weeks, following claims of impropriety by a politician, which circulated on social media.
The Compass has been unable to substantiate those claims.
Opposition MP Alden McLaughlin, who sits on the Parliamentary Management Council, told the Compass on Thursday that he had seen “a very rough draft” of the code five months ago, which “most people found unsatisfactory as it appeared to be a cut-and-paste job”.
He said he hadn’t “heard anything about it since then”.
The implementation of the code for parliamentarians formed part of PACT’s deal with House Speaker McKeeva Bush to form a government back in April.
In a 19 April statement released by the West Bay West MP, accompanying the announcement of the deal, Bush wrote:
“I have also agreed the following with the PACT Independents:
- Immediate implementation of a Code of Conduct for all Parliamentarians where any infractions would lead to immediate dismissal from their position.
- 10% of my monthly salary will be donated to the Women’s Crisis Center
- Continue supporting women issues.”
In April, the Crisis Centre rejected the proposed 10% contribution.
Many were critical of the deal, which marked a U-turn for Premier Wayne Panton, who had cited the Progressives’ failure to break its partnership with the Speaker over his conviction for assaulting a woman, as one of the reasons for his decision to leave the party and contest the 2021 election as an independent candidate.
Back in July, on the eve of the government’s first 100 days in office, Panton announced the enactment of the Cayman Islands’ Ministerial Code of Conduct and indicated then that government was “working on the finalisation of the code of conduct for parliamentarians”.
He stated, “I expect that to be done relatively shortly.”
At the swearing-in of the new government and Members of Parliament in April, Governor Martyn Roper welcomed the planned creation of a code.
He said then, “I believe one of the messages the public clearly sent in these elections is about the great importance attached to the integrity and behaviour of elected parliamentarians, ministers and senior officials. I therefore welcome the incoming government’s announcement it will agree a code of conduct for parliamentarians.”
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