Complaints Commissioner’s team in training

Cayman’s Complaints Commissioners Office team
(seated) Bridgette von Gerhardt, Complaints Assistant,
Scott Swing, Complaints Analyst, Dr John Epp,
Complaints Commissioner with Ontario Ombudsman
Legal Services Senior Counsels Wendy Ray (left) and
Laura Pettigrew

Wednesday,  December 15, 2004

In a bid to get Cayman’s Complaints Commissioners Office up and running as quickly and efficiently as possible, experts from Canada were brought in to impart their knowledge. 

The local team underwent intensive training last week from overseas experts, Laura A. Pettigrew and Wendy Ray, Senior Counsel, Legal Services, Ombudsman Ontario.

Cayman’s Complaints Commissioner Dr John Epp said: “We are sincerely grateful to the Ombudsman Ontario for allowing Ms Pettigrew and Ms Ray to visit us for the week. Their input and knowledge have been invaluable to us.”

Dr Epp heads a small team of three, including Scott Swing, Complaints Analyst and Bridgette von Gerhardt, Complaints Assistant.

He confirmed: “It was clear that the trainers had spent a lot of time preparing for the training. In addition to bringing us the benefit of their years of experience, they prepared for the session by thoroughly reviewing the Complaints Commissioner’s Law 2003 so as to ensure that the training was relevant to our work in Cayman.”

Mrs Gerhardt explained how she found the training useful: “We learnt the four basic concepts for our business: independence, flexibility, investigation and ethics. The Cayman Islands Complaints Commission is a step away from Government with the freedom to investigate and access to files, limited only if there is a risk of a breach of security to the country.”

She continued: “We also learnt the importance of staying flexible and appreciated that we must be able to adapt to change, conduct informal and formal reviews and generally be able to deal with different complaints in different ways, especially when different nationalities and people with special needs might be involved.”

The team was also taught how to conduct proper investigation of complaints, which included the art of creating an investigation plan, and then to gather, review and analyse evidence and finally make a report.

Ethics were also discussed and the team appreciated how to deal with conflicts of issues, impartiality, confidential information and how to act with professionalism, co-operation and fairness.

Mrs Gerhardt said that she realized how each of the team’s roles fitted into the entire organisation through the training, a point echoed by Mr Swing.

He said: “We found it an excellent opportunity to get to know each other better on the team and could appreciate each other’s strengths and weaknesses, which will only make the team more effective as we put everything that we have learnt into practice.”

Dr Epp also wished to express a note of thanks to law firm Maples and Calder for providing free use of its boardroom to facilitate the training.

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