Message from Victoria Pearman, outgoing President, Caribbean Ombudsman Association and the Ombudsman for Bermuda

Dear CAROA Colleagues,

It has been an honour to serve as your CAROA President for the period 1st July 2017 – 30th June 2019. I also thank my fellow outgoing Council members for their contributions. They are:

• Vice President: Keursly Concincion (Curaçao)
• Secretary/Treasurer: Mr. Raymond Mathilda (Curaçao)
• Member: Dr. Marion Blair (Antigua & Barbuda)
• Member: Ms. Sheila Brathwaite (British Virgin Islands)
• Member: Ms. Arlene Harrison Henry (Jamaica)

As you know the 10th Biennial CAROA Conference & Training was recently held here in Bermuda and it was a pleasure to spend time with so many colleagues, both old friends and new. We welcomed a total of 39 delegates to our shores which included 15 Ombudsman, Complaints Commissioners and Public Protectors. It is my sincere hope CAROA will continue to build on the momentum, learning and fellowship we shared during the time spent together. At the General Membership Meeting we elected a new Council for 2019-2021 and inducted five new Honourary Life Members.

For the benefit of those who were not in attendance the newly elected CAROA Council are:

• President: Dr. Rosemarie Husbands-Mathurin (St. Lucia)
• Vice President: Ms. Sheila Brathwaite (British Virgin Islands)
• Secretary: Mr. Randolf Duggins (St. Maarten)
• Treasurer: Mr. Raymond Mathilda (Curaçao)
• Member: Ms. Allison Audain-Miller (Grenada)
• Member: Mr. Patrick Wellington (Trinidad & Tobago)

The newly inducted CAROA Honourary Life Members are:

• Dr. Nilda Arduin (St. Maarten)
• Ms. Cynthia Astwood (Turks & Caicos)
• Madame Florence Elie (Haiti)
• Mr. Walford Gumbs (St. Kitts & Nevis)
• Ms. Lynette Stephenson (Trinidad & Tobago)

Following the conference we were the beneficiaries of a first-class executive training by Dr. Victor Ayeni of GMSI Ltd UK. Through a Facebook live-stream, offices and their staff who were not able to come to Bermuda were able to share in the training. There were over 20 viewers on the first day of the training and over 30 viewers on the second day. We are very pleased that so many were able to participate remotely in this way and we encourage this method of communicating and sharing future trainings going forward.  We thank Dr. Ayeni for the very timely executive training course he provided. Any office that would still like access to this training should contact me as soon as possible. Those who attended the training should have now received Dr Ayeni’s training material by email from GMSI Ltd UK.  Please let us know if you did not receive it.

Photographs from the conference are now available to view on the conference website https://www.caroaconference2019.com/photo-gallery/ . You can download and save images you like by clicking on the thumbnail image and right-mouse click on the enlarged image.  Presentations and conference materials will be available on the website next week. Photographs, presentations and conference material will also be shared with the incoming Council so that they can be made available for download from the CAROA website  www.caribbeanombudsman.com

In the meantime, members are invited to actively use this website and to review, add or modify information on their Offices to it. This website is a tool that can benefit us all, we encourage members to use it to highlight the works of their office and share information We also thank Dr. Marion Blair of Antigua & Barbuda for creating a CAROA Directory for members which will be shared with the membership and also given to the incoming Council to place on the CAROA website.

We belatedly advise the membership that Reverend Florence Daley demitted office from the Complaints Commission of Montserrat in March 2019. We reached out at that time to Reverend Daley to thank her for her service and offer our best wishes.  Mr. George Kirnon has been named the new Chairperson of the Complaints Commission. Mr. Kirnon unfortunately was unable to attend the CAROA Conference as planned due to work commitments. We were pleased that Commissioner Julian Daniel was able to join us to represent Montserrat and share his Grammy quality vocals at the farewell dinner.

As agreed, we are preparing a list of the action points coming out of our conference on the way forward which will be shared. The draft minutes of the General Meeting will be forwarded to the outgoing Council for their review and then passed on to incoming President Dr. Husbands-Mathurin.

I will continue to work on behalf of the region with the International Ombudsman Institute (IOI). I hope to continue to hear from you and to put forward your concerns and representations.  I wish the newly elected Council all the best and look forward to seeing our Association reach new heights now that it has celebrated its 21st birthday. We encourage all CAROA members to work closely together as our first objective states that we are to: actively participate to strengthen offices of the Ombudsman in the Caribbean, foster cooperative work, harness resources and network regionally and internationally.

 

Sincere regards,

 

Victoria Pearman

Outgoing CAROA President
Regional President for the Caribbean and Latin America, IOI
Ombudsman for Bermuda
Office of the Ombudsman for Bermuda

Our Annual Report 2017 is now available. Send us your feedback via our online survey.