Office of Complaints Commissioner making progress

Dr John Epp

by Brian Buckley

Tuesday, August 31, 2004

The Office of the Complaints Commissioner has recently made great strides toward opening an office and getting its operations underway.

John Epp, the Cayman Islands’ first Complaints Commissioner who was sworn in on 14 July, will be presenting his proposal to lease the first office location at a 31 August Cabinet meeting.

The Complaints Commissioner answers to the Legislative Assembly through the Speaker of the House, Hon Linford Pierson. “We meet regularly and the Speaker provides broad guidance to me,” said Mr Epp.

In terms of crafting a budget for this first-of-its-kind office here, Dr Epp has worked closely with the Budget Management Unit and Financial Secretary. “What happened was that 2004/2005 Budget was prepared months before I was in office, so the office was granted a token amount of $200,000.

“When I came in the Budget Management Unit worked with me to come up with a functioning budget. The Finance Committee, which consists of the entire Legislative Assembly, meets on 6 September and will review and hopefully approve our proposed budget of around $650,000,” Dr Epp said.

Of that $650,000, roughly 30 percent will be directed toward salaries, 20 percent toward office space and set-up costs, and the remainder geared toward a training budget, a library, resources, and fitting the office with wiring, etc. “The LA is not giving anything away, but they have been quite supportive,” he said.

Last week two positions in The Office of Complaints Commissioner were advertised in Cayman Net News. Those positions were Complaints Analyst and Complaints Assistant. The Personnel Department assisted Dr Epp in creating the job descriptions and valuing the appropriate salaries for those posts.

Dr Epp has been quite busy going to the public to make this Government initiative a reality. “Over the last few weeks, I have done some public education about the complaints office by speaking at community groups, service clubs, and on radio programmes,” he said.

From those engagements, Dr Epp has felt an extremely positive reaction. “Initially it’s been very positive,” he said. “People seem pleased that that this office has been established. They believe it will make a positive contribution to the Cayman Islands,” he added.

Dr Epp said a large number of the public’s complaints thus far fall into one category.

“Immigration is a topic of concern, but it is important to know that Franz Manderson has pledged to make improvements. Mr Manderson gives us reason to hope, and I applaud his commitment to putting his positive plan in place.”

Speaker Pierson is equally optimistic about the Office of Complaints Commissioner. “Dr Epp has been working hard with the Chief Financial Officer and Budget Management Office to work out a budget for the rest of the year for my review,” he said. “From what I have seen, I am sure everything will be just right.”

One seemingly small thing that has already been established, but truly starts the process is the new post office box that has been attained.

All complaints, and perhaps wishes of good luck, can now be sent to: Office of the Complaints Commissioner, PO Box 2252, George Town, Grand Cayman.

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