CCTV spots vandal defacing campaign poster

The Royal Cayman Islands Police Service (RCIPS) confirmed last Friday (10) that a 44-year-old man was arrested on 4 May 2013 on suspicion of damage to property.

It is understood that the man was arrested after he appeared on the local CCTV footage vandalizing North Side independent candidate Ezzard Miller’s campaign poster.

The suspect has since been released from police custody on bail.

An RCIPS spokesperson said a file was being prepared for the Legal Department and it would be up to the director of public prosecutions to decide whether charges should be laid against the individual. Police did not say if the suspect was a resident or a voter in the district.

Miller congratulated the police and said he was glad to hear that the cameras were working and assisted the officers on the case. It was Miller who had led the campaign in his district to raise the money to have cameras installed in his constituency, long before government began its own installation of CCTV in the larger districts.

Prisoners are still posting on Facebook

Officials from HMP Northward confirmed that a review was instigated following the appearance of various pictures on Facebook posted by prisoners directly from their jail cells. This showed many of the inmates have access to the Internet via smuggled smartphones.

Although some of the Facebook pages of prisoners have disappeared, a number of of them are still posting on the social media site.

“We will be exploring a change in legislation to make it a criminal offence to have cell phones or their component parts in a prison. This is consistent with the UK Prisons policy,” prison officials said Monday. “Cell phones are an ongoing problem and hamper our efforts to combat the continuation of criminal activities, the movement of contraband and general order and control in our prisons.”

The prison said the inmates who posted the pictures were “subject to disciplinary action”.

Ashleigh Nalty qualifies for NAIA National Championships for second time

Caymanian Ashleigh Nalty has qualified for her second National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) National Championships in both high jump and heptathlon.

Nalty is a freshman at Missouri Baptist University and is on the track and field team. In qualifying last week for the NAIA Outdoor championships she earned “A” qualifying standards in both disciplines.

Nalty’s high jump, of 1.73 metres, also broke her own Cayman Islands national mark and tied her for the second-best jump of any NAIA athlete in the United States this season.

Batabano receives complaints over lewd street behaviour

Following the 2013 Batabano Annual Carnival organisers received complaints from the public concerning the lewd behaviour of participants in the parade.

Donna Myrie-Stephen, who leads the group of volunteer organisers, said they had been forced to clamp down this year after a succession of complaints.

“This year, our committee met,” she said, “and decided that because of the public concerns received already this year we will have no choice but to enforce penalties.”

The organising committee said it would be “inappropriate” to say exactly what action it was taking in respect of “parade rule infringements.”

iNews Cayman reporter, Georgina Wilcox, reported she had witnessed lewd behaviour from a few of the participants and these were recorded on her camera that have not been published.

Government ministries paid over $40M to consultants since 2005

Following an open records request from the Caymanian Compass the Ministry of Education spent $32.7 million over the time period covered by the request due largely to the massive high schools project.

Although three schools, Clifton Hunter, John Gray High School and Beulah Smith High School were all started by the previous People’s Progressive Movement (PPM) government, only the Clifton Hunter was completed by the United Democratic Party that gained power because of lack of funds.

The Office of the Auditor General identified in a 2012 report that poor project management practices and a lack of construction expertise within the Ministry of Education as major problems with the schools.

Ex Cayman Auditor General says corruption in Cayman is “insidious”.

Ex auditor general in the Cayman Islands, Dan Duguay, spoke about corruption in Cayman during the Offshore Alert conference in Miami on Tuesday 7^th  May 2013.

He said corruption was a widespread problem that impacted the perception of Cayman among international investors.

Although the dollar amount was not high, he said, the corruption in the Cayman Islands was, however, “insidious”.

Speaking at the Conference as one of the guest presenters he said perhaps the worst instance was the indictment of former Cayman premier McKeeva Bush for theft involving a government credit card, abuse of office and corruption.

Duguay said examples of misuse of government credit cards were not uncommon and, in his time as auditor general from 2004 to 2010, he had seen many officials who had used their government credit cards for personal use, but the money had been paid back.

Taking note of the upcoming election he pointed out that, “everybody expects that you are going into politics to make your money, and you should get some if you are in politics.”