Black Immigrant Daily News

El gobernador Pedro Pierluisi informó hoy, martes, que el secretario del Departamento de Salud (DS), doctor Carlos Mellado López, anunciará hoy las nuevas guías o políticas a seguir en cuanto al coronavirus en las escuelas, incluyendo el que será opcional el uso de mascarillas en los planteles escolares. 

“Entiendo que el secretario está haciendo el anuncio en el día de hoy. Y será el secretario el que establecerá cuándo es que entra en vigor esta nueva guía o política del Departamento de Salud. Entiendo que lo que está exigiendo el Departamento de Salud es recomendarles a los padres y a los estudiantes que utilicen la mascarilla, pero no va a ser obligatorio su uso, así que va a quedar en manos de los padres y de los estudiantes […] el usar la mascarilla o no”, informó el primer ejecutivo.

Esta mañana, Salud reportó 12 muertes y 273 hospitalizaciones por contagios del virus.

Nota relacionada: Salud reporta 12 muertes y 273 hospitalizaciones por COVID-19

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Black Immigrant Daily News

The annual Spectrum conference was held at the Ritz Carlton on September 8, 2022. The full-day event, organized by FTS and Spectrum founder, Paul Byles, featured local and international financial players who not only shared insights about the current state of the financial services industry but also innovations for the future development. Parliamentary Secretary and Acting Minister for Financial Services, Commerce, Investment, Innovation, and Social Development, Mrs Katherine Ebanks-Wilks, also joined stakeholders to communicate the government’s vision.

Government’s vision

Regarding the government’s vision for the financial services industry, the Acting Minister highlighted that, although “As a jurisdiction, the Cayman Islands is moving forward responsively and proactively to ensure we are well positioned to meet both regulatory and market developments,” the execution of the jurisdiction’s strategy must be “a collaborative endeavour.” That is, a successful financial industry strategy for the jurisdiction must incorporate “input from all stakeholders both in the strategy’s formation and execution” for it to work for the benefit of the largest number of stakeholders.

Proposals

To carry through on the government’s commitment to improvements in the financial services industry, the Acting Minister shared a number of positive developments. These included the following:

Creation by the Ministry of Financial Services of a single Beneficial Ownership Act, which is expected to be presented to Parliament later this year Passing of digital ID legislation to securely deliver more personalised online services to residents without the need for individuals to repeatedly provide the same information to different government agenciesChanges to the Accountants Act to ensure clarity in legal definitions, allow additional licensing conditions for public accountants, and expand the membership categories for the Cayman Islands Institute of Professional AccountantsEnhancements to the Limited Liability Companies Act, Exempted Limited Partnerships Act and the Companies Act to streamline processes and improve our financial services industry

Other enhancements

In addition to the foregoing proposals, the Acting Minister noted that “the Cayman Islands has made strong progress toward completing our three-point action plan to address the outstanding items of the FATF’s 63 recommended actions for improving our AML/CFT regime, which was issued in February 2021.”

Regarding this, the Acting Minister emphasized that “the focus continues to be on the Cayman Islands’ removal from the Financial Action Task Force grey list and our subsequent removal from the EU’s AML list of high-risk third-country jurisdictions.”

In relation to the European Union’s anti-money laundering list, the Acting Minister said:

On the EU front, as you know, in March of this year Cayman automatically was added to the EU’s AML list, as a result of being included in the FATF list… In May of this year, during an engagement trip to Brussels whereby the Minister and I had face to face meetings with EU officials, the EU confirmed it will not require Cayman to complete any additional measures in order for Cayman to be removed from its list. As a result, Cayman’s removal from the EU list should occur shortly after the FATF action plan has been satisfied.

Acting Minister says more industry engagement necessary

In order for Cayman to stay on the right track and continue to have a “strong compliance culture” both on paper and in practice, the Acting Minister said that “Our financial services industry and regulators must work together to prevent and detect financial crimes in Cayman, as ultimately, our desire is for a strong compliance culture…”

The Acting Minister noted that government is committed to making this happen not only through planned international engagements with EU and US policy makers, but also by engaging and networking with local stakeholders.

Having a collaborative viewpoint towards the overall reputation of the Cayman Islands will put us in good stead for market opportunities and effective regulatory practices.

The Acting Minister said.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

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Black Immigrant Daily News

The country is one step closer to investigating the events of the 2020 General and Regional Elections following the swearing-in of the presidential Commission of Inquiry today.

The event took place at State House in the presence of senior government officials.

Retired Justice of Appeal Stanley John of Turks and Caicos was named the Chairman of the CoI while its members are former Attorney General, High Court Judge and Acting Justice of Appeal in the Eastern Caribbean, Godfrey P Smith, SC; former Chair and Chief Elections Commissioner of India, Dr S Y Quraishi and former acting Chancellor of Guyana’s Judiciary, Carl Singh.

Dr Afari Jayan and Dr Nasim Zaidi will serve as resource personnel on the CoI, to assist the Commission with its work.

L-R: Stanley John, Godfrey P. Smith, Dr S. Y. Quraishi and Carl Singh

Following the prolonged elections and its attendant controversies, the Caribbean Community (Caricom) scrutinising team had recommended a political audit into the functioning of GECOM. President Dr Irfaan Ali had announced the CoI.

Since last year, Ali had indicated that his Government was “committed” to identifying the individuals responsible in the rigging attempts and pinpointing possible areas of weakness that can be used to guide the required strengthening of Guyana’s electoral system. This would be achieved through the Inquiry, to which stakeholder consultations were facilitated to select appropriate persons.

Since the election fiasco unfolded, several persons that served within the apparatus of GECOM have already been charged with electoral fraud. They include former Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield; former Deputy CEO Roxanne Myers, former Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo among others.

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