EDITORIAL

Complaints only useful if they cause a change

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

Last week’s announcement that Dr John Epp would become the Cayman Islands’ first Complaints Commissioner is, on the surface, a very welcome development.

Mr Epp’s primary task has been defined in a broad sense as investigating complaints from members of the public to ascertain whether injustice has been caused by improper, unreasonable or inadequate administrative conduct on the party of any Government Ministry, Portfolio, Government company, Statutory Board or Authority.

The Government has promised a media education campaign in the coming months to further clarify the role of the Complaints Commissioner. While the idea of Cayman having such an ombudsperson looks good on paper, it will be interesting to see how effective Mr Epp will be in reaching the objectives for the position.

Beyond his personal capabilities, the Complaints Commissioner’s effectiveness will be determined by a number of other aspects that relate to the way he will do his job. For one, to be truly useful, the position demands a certain amount of autonomy and the ability to operate without interference from outside influences, particularly in Government.

At the same time, Mr Epp will require the cooperation of the subjects of his investigations, and in this Cayman Islands environment where many Government bodies often claim confidentiality when asked to explain their actions, he might find required information less than forthcoming.

It could be, for example, that the source of a particular complaint originates at the Cabinet level, even if it was a government body under the ministry that ultimately acted outside of its bounds. Does Mr Epp’s investigation end with “we were only following orders, and we can’t say any more” or will he have the authority to continue wherever his investigation takes him?

Even if the Complaints Commissioner finds himself able to get to the bottom of a particular grievance, the question then becomes what can he do about it. Just the discovery of an injustice or wrongdoing might be helpful in preventing future occurrences, but will do little to alleviate the ill will of the party that made the complaint in the first place.

For Mr Epp to be successful in his role, he will need to be able to bring about fair settlements, in the form of restitution or punishment, to complaints in which he finds there have been improprieties or injustices.

The Complaints Commissioner must be more than a glorified customer service agent that commiserates sympathetically with those who have legitimate grievances. His simply saying, “sorry, it won’t happen again” will not accomplish anything. Someone or some company that has lost a large amount of money due to a government-level error will demand restitution of some sort.

Instead, Mr Epp must have the Cayman Islands Legal Department backing the findings of his investigations, and applying the proper measures of justice to the cases.

Certainly, Mr Epp’s familiarity with the law, he is the Deputy Director and a Senior Lecturer at the Cayman Islands Law School, will serve him well in knowing the kind of penalties that are appropriate to the cases he investigates. However, it remains to be seen if he will be able to actually ensure that justice is served.

Still, it is sincerely hoped that Mr Epp will indeed succeed at his task at hand, and credit must be given to the Cayman Islands Government for taking this important step in instituting an ombudsman-like form of governmental checks and balances.

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