Remaining inquires arising from the police corruption investigation dubbed Operation Cealt will be undertaken by a new anti-corruption unit in the Royal Cayman Island Police Services.

Cealt was the second of two police corruption investigations undertaken by the UK Metropolitan Police over the past two and a half years.

During an interview last week, Governor Duncan Taylor said he understood from Police Commissioner David Baines that Operation Cealt had been brought in-house at the RCIPS.

Part of bringing the investigation in-house will involve jettisoning the Operation Cealt moniker, the governor said.

“The commissioner no longer wants to see it as a separate operation with a separate name,” Mr. Taylor said.

“I don’t think he’s going to want to use the name Operation Cealt anymore, so in a sense, you could say Operation Cealt is over or about to be over.”

That, however, does not mean that all of the matters of investigation of Cealt, which arose out of a number of complaints made against the police by Cayman Islands residents since March 2008, are over.

“There will be some continuing investigation into the most serious allegations that were alleged under Operation Cealt,” Mr. Taylor said. “They will become part of something that will be handled entirely in-house by the RCIPS within their anti-corruption unit. That is my understanding.”

Mr. Taylor said Commissioner Baines was currently in the process of building the anti-corruption unit.

“When that is up and running, and literally as we speak I know he is processing applications for the positions in the anti-corruption unit, [the Operation Cealt matters] will be an in-house investigation. There will be a cold-casing, looking into old cases which may need to be reviewed, and there’s people handling corruption cases.”

The governor welcomed the formation of the anti-corruption unit.

“I think that it’s right that it should be, whenever possible, the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service carrying out the investigations.”

Anti-Corruption Commission

In addition to the RCIPS anti-corruption unit, Mr. Taylor recently made two appointments  to complete the establishment of the Anti-Corruption Commission called for in The Anti-Corruption Law, 2008, which took effect 1 January 2010.

The Anti-Corruption Commission will act as the anti-corruption authority of the Cayman Islands and investigate reports of corruption offenses, including bribery of lawmakers; defrauding government entities; breach of trust by public officers; and attempts to buy or sell public offices.

The Commission comprises the Commissioner of Police, the Auditor General, the Complaints Commissioner and two people appointed by the governor. The two appointed people must be retired judges, retired policemen, retired magistrates, retired attorneys-at-law, or retired justices of the peace.

Mr. Taylor said he had recently appointed Sir Peter Allen, a former chief justice in Uganda who now resides in the Cayman Islands, and Leonard Ebanks, a retired justice of the peace, to the Anti-Corruption Commission.  

 “The next stage will be, I think, to get the attorney general to give them a briefing on the work of the Anti-Corruption Commission,” he said. “I want to sit in on the briefing myself just to get a better understanding of what the Anti-Corruption Commission will be doing.”

After the briefing, Mr. Taylor said the Anti-Corruption Commission should begin operating.

“I’m hoping that will happen pretty soon.”

The commencement of the Anti-Corruption Law and the establishment of the Anti-Corruption Commission is seen as an important event for the Cayman Islands in helping to fight its tax haven image. Former Chairman of the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority Tim Ridley called the development “a bold step” in the First Quarter 2010 Cayman Financial Review.

“It is a highly commendable move and is as a key part of Cayman’s commitment to implement improved good governance, regulation, transparency and cross-border assistance and enforcement,” he wrote.

National Security Council

Mr. Taylor confirmed that the National Security Council, a body that is called for in Cayman’s new Constitution to advise the governor on security matters, will commence its operations this Wednesday.

“I think it will be a very important body with a key function,” Mr. Taylor said.

The new constitution took effect 6 November last year, but Mr. Taylor said he wanted to get to know some of the people he’d be working with, like the premier, the attorney general and the commissioner of police, before establishing the council.

“I wanted to just get my feet under the desk and get a bit of a feel of what’s going on here, particularly on the security side, before actually chairing the first meeting,” he said.  “I think I’m now in a position to do that and I’m conscious that there are, quite understandably, some serious concerns about security right now.”

Although he realises there is a sense of urgency about getting the National Security Council up and running – at a public meeting last week George Town MLA Alden McLaughlin called it a “dereliction of duty” for the council not to be operational since 6 November in view of the recent wave of violent crimes – Mr. Taylor said he felt six weeks after he arrived was “pretty much around the timing I would have liked to have held the first meeting”.

The National Security Council will comprise the governor as chairman, the premier, the leader of the opposition, the deputy governor, the attorney general, the commissioner of police, two cabinet minister recommended by the premier and two members of the public appointed by the governor.

The two appointed members of the public are Bridget Kirkconnell and Dan Scott.

Mr. Taylor said the National Security Council would look at all of Cayman’s security issues.

“It’s going to give an opportunity for serious discussions, not just about what the police do, but more broadly,” he said. “We’ll want to begin, for example, by looking at what some of the threats are – threats in the short term, in the medium term and in the long term – and what are the right strategies to deal with those threats.

“We’re not talking just about police; we’ll be looking at Customs, Immigration, the Prison Service and so on.”