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(CNS): The Office of the Ombudsman (OMB) has ordered the Department of Tourism to release details of the partnerships and sponsorship agreements it made with various overseas entities to promote the Cayman Islands to potential visitors between 2020 and 2022. More than 18 months after a local reporter made an FOI request for the records, the DoT has still not properly responded but has taken a “drip feed” approach, which the OMB said was “unacceptable”.
The DoT effectively declined the bulk of the request made by a member of the Cayman Compass journalism team, suggesting that the deals the department had made with various sporting clubs and other entities were commercially sensitive and contained trade secrets — claims that Ombudsman Sharon Roulstone completely rejected.
In her ruling, she found that the records would not harm the commercial value of the information or the commercial interests of the parties because the withheld documents, including the business cases and agreements involved, did not contain any trade secrets and should have been disclosed in full.
Roulstone said the only exceptions to full disclosure were the personal contact details and signatures of the private entities who were party to the deals.
She also outlined a number of procedural difficulties and raised concerns about the lengthy delays in the DoT’s approach and response to the records application.
“I cannot find any good reason for the slow and selective response the DoT gave to the applicant’s request,” Roulson wrote in the decision. “The final explanations for withholding some of the records were not given until more than a year after the request was made. This is not an acceptable way of answering requests under FOIA or of cooperating with my office,” she added.
The documents relate to the expenditure of public money on deals to promote Cayman and attract new visitors, especially from the UK. In recent years, the DoT has faced considerable criticism and stirred up controversy over its choice of some promotional ideas, such as the decision to sponsor designer handbags and the promotion of unknown local sports teams and niche events.
During the time frame of this request, the DoT spent around CI$500,000 on promotions, including some that were connected to Cayman’s senior tourism official in the UK, Adrian White.
Roulstone stated in her ruling that the general public has a reasonable expectation of understanding the rationale behind the expenditures of public funds and noted the importance of transparency. She also said officials from the DoT claimed that when they spent money promoting a very obscure amateur field hockey team, the Old Cranleighan Hockey Club, they were unaware that White plays for the team.
The DoT has 45 days from last Thursday to either release the remaining records or seek a judicial review of the order to release the documents.
Meanwhile, the ombudsman revealed that this was the 100th decision issued by either her office or the Information Commissioner’s Office (which dealt with FOI issues until the OMB was established) since the Freedom of Information Act took effect here in January 2009.
“The milestone of 100 hearing decisions since the FOIA was first enacted represents considerable time and effort by our Information Rights team. It is reassuring that Cayman’s FOI process is still strong after all these years and that the Cayman public has kept an interest in their right to know,” Roulstone said.
For more information about Cayman’s FOI Act, visit the OMB website.
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