Civil servant Michael Ebanks has returned to duty at the Ministry of Home Affairs as acting chief officer, a post he vacated after a conflict last year which saw Minister Bernie Bush stripped of the Home Affairs portfolio.
Ebanks confirmed to the Cayman Compass that he was back at the ministry full-time; however, he declined to comment on his departure last year and the circumstances that lead to his decision to opt for early retirement.
“My return to the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Cayman Islands government is like returning home,” Ebanks said Friday, when the Compass caught up with him.
Last April Ebanks wrote to Deputy Governor Franz Manderson requesting that he be relieved of his responsibilities as chief officer earlier than his planned departure at the end of May 2022.
He asked that his departure date be brought forward to 6 May and outlined, in his resignation letter, reasons for his decision.
It was those reasons, which have not been made public, that prompted Premier Wayne Panton to take action against then Home Affairs Minister Bush.
Panton, in a statement, had announced that Bush had been stripped of the home affairs ministry and sent on two weeks’ unpaid leave, commencing 18 April 2022, after “infringements of section 55 of the Constitution and breaches to two sections of the Ministerial Code of Conduct”.
Bush, in a media interview, had stated that he had put a stop to what he described as ‘unacceptable bonuses’ being paid to former fire chief Paul Walker to train Caymanians.
The responsibility for civil service matters, under the Constitution, lies with the governor, but has been delegated to the deputy governor, as head of the civil service.
Bush, in the premier’s statement, accepted his censure and apologised, but retained his Ministry of Youth, Sports, Culture and Heritage portfolio.
Health Minister Sabrina Turner was later assigned the home affairs portfolio.
Ebanks, who has been working at the ministry in his previous post of acting chief officer, said he would like to move on from last year’s events.
“I am very grateful to the honourable deputy governor who has appointed me as the deputy chief officer for home affairs and has seen fit to appoint me as the acting chief officer in the interim. I will continue to uphold the mission of the ministry, which is primarily in regard to national security and public safety,” Ebanks said.
Deputy Governor Manderson, in a brief comment to the Compass Tuesday on Ebanks’s return, said, “We are delighted to welcome Mr. Ebanks back to our civil service family.”
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