Polack Post: Caribbean Incompetence: Cayman Attorney General
By Peter Polack
Peter Polack
The outgoing chairman of the most senior anti-corruption body and his predecessor, topped only by the new Premier, has described the performance of the Attorney General and his portfolio as unacceptable in the case of the seven year asset confiscation delay of a convicted criminal. That figure is more like ten years if the time lapse is included for court proceedings.
Unashamedly, the sinecure Attorney General chose to pass the buck before parliament to the self same legal system and laws for which he is responsible.
He need not worry. Both the novice Premier and the Parliament have have been lead around the mangroves by the nose for decades by him while credible and competent native sons wait in the wings. The Cayman Attorney General is neither credible or competent. This is not the first but the latest of many complaints to follow his sad tenure.
The Teflon Bulgin.
Should the matter end there it would be under the heading of the recurring decimal.
The leader of this recent debacle and new Premier is one of the most highly paid world leaders, making more than even the prime minister of Canada who actually earns his salary. One 2024 report has the Cayman Premier as the highest paid world leader. He makes more than the UK prime minister or American president with benefits.The Attorney General is not far behind.
By contrast the Prime Minister of the thirty times larger Jamaica earns less than US$200,000, reduced after tax.
This is not an isolated case in the Caribbean where poor performance portfolio heads and political leaders multiply like fungi.
Not a single one of them need worry.
Budgets are multiplying while incompetence has become endemic.
The Cayman Premier recently declared that financial compliance clerks are our soldiers on the front line. He has never been to the Ukraine or understood that generals are responsible for the outcomes of a battle.
The buck is not stopping with the Premier of the Cayman Islands, he is passing the buck while increasing the budget.
Smoke and mirrors.
Notes
https://www.caymancompass.com/2025/11/11/attorney-general-defends-caymans-record-on-asset-recovery
https://www.caymancompass.com/2023/11/30/caymans-premier-among-top-10-highest-paid-world-leaders
https://jis.gov.jm/salary-adjustments-for-mps-ministers
Peter Polack is a former criminal lawyer from the Cayman Islands for several decades. His books are The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War: South Africa vs. Cuba in the Angolan Civil War (2013), Jamaica, The Land of Film (2017) and Guerrilla Warfare: Kings of Revolution (2019). He was a contributor to Encyclopedia of Warfare (2013). His latest book is a compendium of Russian espionage activities with almost five hundred Soviet spies expelled from nearly 100 countries worldwide 1940-88.
His views are his own.
This would be even more humorous if it weren’t the absolute truth. The decades long failure of the ancient attorney general are an embarrassment to the Cayman Islands and the fact that successive governments have never sought to remove him from such esteemed office also echoes incompetence on high.
Andre is leading another party who will neither address the glaring failures or CIMA and the AG’s office. One has to wonder what the secret to such longevity is.