Examination of Witnesses (Questions 20-27)
THE HON
RALPH O'NEAL
AND THE
HON KURT
TIBBETTS
3 DECEMBER 2007
Q20 Andrew Mackinlay: How would I
become a belonger?
Kurt Tibbetts: In the Cayman Islands,
our own domestic legislation dictates the conditions under which
someone can gain permanent residence. After permanent residence,
there is the naturalisation process that follows automatically;
and then, after a certain period of time, one becomes a Caymanian.
Q21 Andrew Mackinlay: Is that a controversial
area, and do belongers have the vote?
Kurt Tibbetts: Once they become
Caymanians, they certainly do.
Q22 Andrew Mackinlay: But not belongers?
Kurt Tibbetts: Well, that depends
on what you mean. My belonger is a Caymanian. I am not being rude,
but want to make sure that we understand one another. Permanent
residence does not allow someone to vote. That may be what you
call a belonger, but as far as we are concerned there is another
step under our domestic legislation.
Q23 Andrew Mackinlay: Is citizenship
awarded by your government, rather than by the United Kingdom
Government?
Kurt Tibbetts: It is not the United
Kingdom Government. The system is such that there is the legislation,
and we have a board that is appointed and made up of citizens
of the country from various cross-sections of society. They make
the decision based on the parameters that the legislation calls
for.
Ralph O'Neal: The situation in
the British Virgin Islands is similar to that in the Cayman Islands,
except that you have to live and reside continuously in the Territory
for 20 years before you can apply for permanent residence. After
you have permanent residence, you can apply to become a belonger.
The law sets out how that should be done and what you should present.
Then you will become a belonger, be eligible to vote and have
all the rights of a British Virgin Islander.
Q24 Andrew Mackinlay: Therefore,
as a belonger in your Territory, I could vote, whereas in the
Cayman Islands, I could not vote.
Kurt Tibbetts: That is not what
he is saying. He is saying that you become a permanent resident
just as you would in the Cayman Islands. After that, you get belonger
status and can then vote. It is the same thing.
Ralph O'Neil: Then you can vote
and own land without a licence.
Q25 Andrew Mackinlay: In both jurisdictions,
the Governor is, ultimately, the person with stewardship of law
and order. Although there might be police commissions, he is ultimately
the person who has that stewardship. Is that a problem? Does the
Governor discharge his duties adequately? Again, we are talking
not personally, but about the office. You are in a part of the
world that has vast expanses of water and lots of boats. What
would you say about tackling not so much domestic issues, but
international crime, regulation and protecting the shores from
illegal landings?
Kurt Tibbetts: You have to separate
the two areas. On protecting the borders, His Excellency the Governor
is responsible for internal and external affairs, but the Cabinet
and the legislative assemblies vote the money. We have joint policy
considerations, but the day-to-day operations are discharged by
the commissioner, who reports directly to His Excellency the Governor.
We deal with policy and legislation, which is the political arm
of government, but we do not have any dealings with the operational
side of the police.
For protecting the borders, in the Cayman Islands,
for instance, we have just ordered some new boats and are building
a new marine base. We recognise the need for it and are pacing
ourselves as far as our budgetary allocation allows. It will probably
happen over the next two to three years.
I am not sure where you are going with what
you said on international crime, but I thought that it might be
connected to the fact that we are an international financial centre
and must have a proper regulatory regime to ensure that the system
is robust. In the Cayman Islands, we have the Cayman Islands Monetary
Authority. I could say a lot about that and the other regulators,
but wonder if you have any specific questions about it.
Q26 Andrew Mackinlay: Can I be candid?
It is the nature of things that you and I and my colleagues have
a limited amount of time today. There is a geographical problem.
You have a duty to your constituents and we have a duty to you,
internationally. We both need to combat crime. If there is more
information, you should feed it to us because we need to get a
handle on and a feel for what our responsibilities are. We need
to be reassured—I use that word deliberately—that
all is well. That is part of our motive in holding this inquiry.
Part of it is an issue relevant to all your jurisdictions—I
say this to Premier O'Neal, as well. I touched upon belongers
and the question of rights and citizenship because if a person
gets citizenship of your jurisdictions, it gives some access to
the United Kingdom, does it not?
Kurt Tibbetts: That is fair comment.
Chairman: We are short of time. We have
two more groups of witnesses, so can I move on to more questions?
You touched on the financial side and we have some more questions
on that.
Q27 Mr. Moss: We have drifted on
to the financial powers of your two Territories. A recent report
by the National Audit Office found that the regulation of the
financial industries in both your Territories—and in two
others that I will not mention—were superior to others in
your general region. Why do you think that you are better than
some of the other centres and Territories in your region? This
gives you a chance to tell us how good you are.
Ralph O'Neal: I will tell you
what we have done in the British Virgin Islands. The Financial
Services Commission is a separate and distinct entity; it is not
under any political control. That Commission was set up in 2002
and, as a result, they have the regulations and agreements that
they have made worldwide. They have enhanced the financial services
in the Territory and gained worldwide recognition for running
a very good regime. The laws and regulations are frequently updated.
To prevent money laundering and other crimes associated with money
and the proceeds of drug trafficking, every effort is made to
stop every possible loophole—the minute anything happens,
a red flag is raised and it is dealt with immediately.
The managing director of the Financial Services
Commission keeps the Governor informed about how matters are going.
The commission meets once a year with the Cabinet to provide,
in addition to the annual report, an update and overview of what
is happening and what is likely to happen. We propose now to change
that, so that the commission will meet not only with the Cabinet
but with the House of Assembly. It is the House of Assembly who
has to pass the laws. Unless it has a good insight and understands
why things are done, and why laws must be passed, there might
be difficulties. For years now the Legislative Council, as it
was called then, has gone on record as saying that when it comes
to the financial services and legislation, there has been no division
at all. It realised the importance of having adequate legislation
to support the industry.
Kurt Tibbetts: If I may do so
quickly, I should like to add some insight into the Cayman Islands.
We have a very strong compliance culture, which is underpinned
by modern legislation and complies with international best practice.
This is built on a partnership between the government and the
private sector. We have an environment which accords with international
best practice. This encourages business to be done in the Islands,
because nowadays business entities want to conduct their affairs
in a jurisdiction that accords to such best practice. The Islands
have a strong cadre of professional service providers; we have
been able to attract them—the lawyers, the accountants,
the auditors, the company managers and the fund administrators.
All of those factors combined are essential to ensure that we
are successful and that our financial services industry is successful.
To add to that, we are very stable politically.
That is further underpinned by our constitutional relationship
with the United Kingdom Government. We have first-class telecommunications,
which link the Cayman Islands to the rest of the world. We are
very accessible to the rest of the world also because we have
good international air links with the US, Canada, the UK and the
entire Caribbean region.
We also have a strong legal and independent
judicial framework. The system is independent of the executive
arm of government, which adds confidence to business entities.
It also means that disputes between parties can be dealt with
by a confident judiciary.
The Islands also have an efficient, competent
and impartial civil service that is able to implement the policies
of the Executive, which are developed to create a business environment
in which international financial services can flourish. We have
a Monetary Authority comparable to the BVI's Financial Services
Commission. We, too, operate the authority as an independent body—independent
of either of the other arms of government. They send us their
quarterly reports, and we fund them according to their needs—the
human resources or other resources that are needed to ensure that
they are able to comply with all the international standards that
continue to bear down on us.
Chairman: That is the last of the questions,
I am sorry to say. I know that at least one of you gentlemen has
another engagement, and we were told not to delay you. I thank
you both for coming here today. We may write to you with some
follow-up questions. If there is anything more that you wish to
add to assist us in our inquiry, you can write to us, and we will
be very pleased to hear from you. We thank you for your time,
and for the information and answers that you have given us today.
Kurt Tibbetts: I thank you, Chairman,
and I thank the Committee. Should you wish to ask us any more
questions, I am sure that we would be happy to answer them.
Ralph O'Neal: Thank you. It was
a privilege to be here, and I invite the Committee to visit the
Islands one of these days and see for yourselves what nature is
like.
Kurt Tibbetts: Come on a cruise
ship and visit us all.
Chairman: Thank you. We shall break for
two minutes in order to change our witnesses, and then continue.
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