Peter Polack: UK Territory British Virgin Islands De Facto Direct Rule or Is Cayman Next?

February 15, 2024

By Peter Polack

Peter Polack

Shortly after the arrest of British Virgin Islands Premier Andrew Fahie in Miami by DEA agents for a drug sting operation, a U.K. commission of inquiry report on BVI corruption, abuse of office and serious dishonesty was released, in June 2022.

What followed was a tug of war between the UK government representative and the elected legislature, the elected ministers and the new Premier of the British Virgin Islands over the implementation of the recommendations of the report.

The report had proposed a suspension of the BVI Constitution to implement direct rule as necessary to effect the recommendations. The U.K. has paused such a step.

Andrew Fahie has now been convicted in Florida and faces life imprisonment.

A similar local conviction from a police sting operation befell the present Cayman Islands Minister of Tourism Kenneth Bryan some years ago. That did not bar him from elected public office.

The British Viceroys despatched at regular intervals to the Caribbean are a befuddled lot as they earnestly try to imprint a United Kingdom template on their various Caribbean outposts with mixed results.

As a former world colonial power, the U.K. has had much experience in direct rule, the most recent being of the Turks and Caicos Islands in 2009.

The TCI came out of that experience a few years later with a new, shaved Constitution and a stark decision, obedience or independence.

Many of the BVI inquiry recommendations could have found a home in the TCI narrative which brings us to the Cayman Islands.

With a nearly billion dollar budget for 60,000 people and a new governor, Jane Owen, the last four years have seen much controversy and spiralling crime.

A horse trading coalition government since the 2021 election with disparate individuals moving in and out of the political executive. They included a recently resigned Premier after a no confidence motion by former colleagues, shortly after the half-way mark of his tenure in 2023. His attempt to have a new election failed.

The new female Premier, another earlier Premier, created a rebranded government that included almost all the former members of the old government which had lasted just over two years.

The more things change the more they remain the same.

The Auditor-General has frequently called out the Cayman government on issues of governance to include spending US10 million outside procurement rules in 2023 and an excessive US$70,000 for a Port Authority Christmas Party.

Then there was also the nonsensical creation, for a small island with no exports, of a Cayman overseas office in Dubai, just before the 2021 election, heavily criticized in a later report by the Auditor-General.

That office was created by the former government just before the 2021 election, whose leader at the time is now the new Cayman Islands Parliament Speaker.

Round and round the merry-go-round.

In 2020 the then Premier, now Speaker, described as utter humiliation when the U.K. government was forced to legalize same sex unions for their island territory after the bill failed to pass the local legislature. A small sample of direct rule.

The Cayman politicians need to walk very softly compared to the TCI and BVI.

The world is becoming a different place with a laser focus on tax avoidance and the OECD global minimum tax rate of 15% backed by 130 countries.

The owners of big money, the funds, are the most sensitive people in the world.

Having recently come off the FATF grey list for countries with weak anti-money laundering regulations, the Cayman financial industry or the piggy bank is one small misstep or controversy away from going back to weaving rope.

The U.K. also needs to tread lightly given the obsolete Commonwealth, new popularity of republics in the Caribbean, the likelihood of military conscription for U.K. citizens in the future and the wave of mutual interest groups like BRICS.

The United Kingdom has seen much political turmoil and scandal such as the Post Office debacle in the last several years. This would be more than sufficient to question authority for governance when there are so many failings by the British government and the Royals.

Children cease to be obedient if the adults are frolicking.

Judge not and all that.

otes

Two jailed for supplying cocaine – Cayman Compass

Bryan Elected New CTO Chairman – OneCaribbean.org

Wayne Panton declines Speaker’s post – Cayman Compass

Cayman Islands governor appoints new premier | Reuters

CI$8 million spent by CIG outside of rules : Cayman News Service

PACI spent CI$56k on 2022 Christmas Party : Cayman News Service

Tax Incentives and the Global Minimum Corporate Tax: Reconsidering Tax Incentives after the GloBE Rules | en | OECD

OAG stands by report on Dubai and o’seas office failings : Cayman News Service

Premier ‘humiliated’ UK was forced to intervene on same-sex union bill – Cayman Compass