Leader of Government Business Kurt Tibbetts called the investigation by the United States’ Government Accountability Office into Ugland House ‘political manoeuvring more than anything else’.
The US investigation of Ugland House has drawn criticism from the Cayman Islands Government. |
Speaking at the Cabinet press briefing on Friday, Mr. Tibbetts said the delegation that travelled to Washington earlier this year met with the right people on Capital Hill.
‘When we met with the head of the Ways and Means Committee, it was very clear to us that the technocrats on Capital Hill are quite aware of [how business is conducted in Cayman],’ he said.
Mr. Tibbetts said there were some US politicians who need a platform to be seen and heard and that they were quite willing to use Cayman as that platform because of its high profile.
Cabinet Minister Arden McLean noted the timing of the investigation.
‘Every time America has an election… politicians try to appease people about tax evasion,’ he said.
Mr. Tibbetts said politicians will promise the public that if elected, they will use the ‘millions and billions’ of unpaid tax dollars they will collected to fill in the gaps of need for the American public.
‘They’ve admitted to us that they don’t even know how much or how little [in unpaid tax dollars] they’re talking about.’
Mr. Tibbetts said the US government had been invited to visit Cayman.
‘All they have to do is accept the invitation and come down here,’ he said. ‘But if they think they can just hop a flight and come down and do what they wish… it ain’t gonna happen. They have to go through the proper channels.’
Regardless of the reasons for the investigation, Mr. Tibbetts said the Cayman Islands’ public relations firm in Washington, Fleishman-Hillard, and Cayman’s Public Relations Unit were in constant contact with each other on the matter and were monitoring the situation very closely.
‘They are continually dealing with the situation to make sure we respond, even if not to John Public, to make sure people have the facts.’
Mr. Tibbetts said the Cayman Islands Government has been assured by the contacts it has established in the US government it will be contacted before anything that could affect the jurisdiction’s financial services industry happens
Mr. Tibbetts said the Cayman Islands has nothing to hide, and he noted the jurisdiction is no longer blacklisted because of its business practices.
‘We are long past the stage of trying to dodge the bullet,’ he said. ‘We are going to lead the way… and do what we need to do, and we’re going to be proactive.’
Chairman of the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority, Tim Ridley, also sees the move by the Senate Finance Committee as a product of political posturing ’emboldened by the Democrats control of the Congress and possible control of the White House in 2008′.
However, Mr. Ridley expressed some concern nevertheless.
‘The development is concerning for Cayman, because of the likely damaging media coverage and possible adverse legislation in the USA,’ he said. ‘It further highlights the need for both the Government and the private sector to be far more proactive in early and effective engagement with the policymakers, bureaucrats and media in key jurisdictions.’
Mr. Ridley thinks that effort to date has lacked ‘coherence and weight’.
‘It is an expensive exercise, but it is a cost of Cayman being an international financial services centre.’
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