Michael Myles MP, the Minister for Caymanian Employment and Immigration, has declared a contract between a training company he describes as his own and Workforce Opportunities and Residency Cayman (WORC), the department his ministry runs. The company, Inspire Cayman Training Ltd, is selling employers scholarship sponsorships, with its courses priced at CI$3,500 to CI$5,350, as a way to meet obligations a board in his ministry enforces. He put the contract and the ownership on the public record himself, in a Gazette notice before the election ("I, Michael Myles, am the sole owner of Inspire Cayman Training Ltd", a company "which has a contract with WORC") and on the Register of Interests after taking office; whether either has changed since, he has not said. The only published figure for public money reaching the company is the Auditor General's "about $430,000" for four WORC programmes in 2023, in Cayman dollars. What the contract he declared is worth, and whether he has stepped back from any decision touching it, is on no public record; The Caymanian Journal (TCJ) has found none in Hansard, on gov.ky or on the procurement portal. What WORC has paid since May 2025 is unpublished.

He has done what the law demands. The Standards in Public Life Act requires a member of Parliament to declare shareholdings, directorships and "any contract made with any public entity", and he did, within the statutory window. Nothing in the Constitution or the Act requires a minister to sell a business or place it in trust. The unit that bought the WORC programmes he declared was moved out of his ministry to Education in July 2025, and three public bodies that have named the company since he took office all sit in other ministers' portfolios. The Act's test, though, is not influence but appearance: a conflict is a private interest that "may improperly influence or be seen to improperly influence" a person's public duties.

The declaration has drawn attention this week because Mr Myles MP, who spoke publicly in the Premier's defence, told the public on Sunday 1 November that "as a person and especially as an elected Member of Parliament I believe it is important to take a stance publicly, with my name, on matters that impact the integrity of our government".

The pitch and the price

The company sells to the rules his ministry enforces, in terms. Regulation 6 of the Immigration Regulations lets WORC require a permit applicant to show a training programme for Caymanians and makes its absence "a ground for denying the grant or renewal of a work permit". Schedule 3 requires every employer of permit holders to state in its business staffing plan its "commitment to education and development locally including scholarships, training schemes and in-house training", and lets the Business Staffing Plan Board, which sits under WORC, attach "general conditions as to advertising, training and scholarships". The Board has applied "zero tolerance" to unmet conditions since June 2025. The rules are inherited; the enforcement that creates the demand is his ministry's, and he has said so: "A law without enforcement is not reform. It is theatre."

In correspondence seen by TCJ, an Inspire staffer invites a prospective employer to fund TVET scholarships and writes: "I am pleased to share that under Schedule 3 of the Immigration Regulations (2019 Revision), Inspire Cayman Training is cited within the Business Staffing Plan framework. Please find the confirmation letter from WORC attached for your review." It offers "sponsoring individual scholarships, contributing to our general fund, or partnering on a named program", and asks for a time to discuss "how such a contribution can help ensure that" the employer "meets its BSP obligations". Schedule 3 names no training provider. What the "confirmation letter from WORC" says, whether WORC issued it, and whether any other provider holds one, is not on the public record; WORC was asked and did not reply.

The price is in the company's own words. TCJ has been privy to recent correspondence between Inspire and a prospective employer in which the company prices its certificates in payroll, accounting principles, customer service and early childhood teaching at CI$3,500 each and its advanced accounting, advanced customer service and tourism courses at CI$5,350. These are not the trades Inspire was founded to teach, nor the "heavy equipment and construction" it delivered for WORC in 2025. The money is private, so the Procurement Act does not apply, no notice is published and no Freedom of Information request can reach it. The employer may choose any registered centre, which is the Ministry's fair answer, and Schedule 3 itself counts scholarships and in-house training. But the register lists two general TVET providers, one of them the firm the Minister declared, and nobody outside that company can say what share of the conditions his department imposes is met by buying its courses.

What he declared

In a notice he signed on 24 March 2025 and published in the Cayman Islands Gazette on 31 March, four weeks after nomination day on 3 March, Mr Myles MP described himself as "the sole owner of Inspire Cayman Training Ltd", a company "which has a contract with WORC to provide employability and other technical and vocational trainings and certifications to their clients as selected by them". Section 62(1)(g) of the Constitution disqualifies a candidate who holds a Government contract unless, "within the period of one month immediately preceding the date of an election", he publishes a notice "setting out the nature of such contract and his or her interest". The election was 30 April, so the window ran from 30 March; published on 31 March, his notice met it. Separately, the Standards in Public Life Act requires a candidate's declaration to the Commission before nomination papers are filed; his was reported on 7 March as recording two contracts with WORC. His went further: the company "has been and may continue to be the recipient of scholarship funds awarded to individuals selected by the Ministry of Education", rents rooms Government departments "may" hire, and "has been and may continue to be a provider of training courses for staff of various Cayman Island [sic] Government departments". He won Prospect on 30 April 2025 and six weeks after the notice took charge of the ministry that houses WORC.

His Register entry, filed within the statutory window and as transcribed by the Cayman Compass from an inspection before 15 September 2025, records shareholdings and directorships in Inspire and in Build Your Future Cayman; a contract with WORC for "TVET and professional development (Ready2Work and general training)"; shares in CUC and Pickleball Cayman; three brokerage accounts; and a "loan from Foster Group for Inspire Cayman build-out". The entry does not say what the WORC contract pays, when it was signed or whether he has recused himself, and the Register may be read only at the Commissions Secretariat: "any mechanical or electronic reproduction ... of any part of the Register is prohibited", so TCJ relies on that transcription.

The Auditor General found in 2024 that WORC had outsourced four programmes to the company in 2023, among them Ready2Work KY and general training: "WORC will pay about $430,000 for the four programmes." The programmes the auditor listed match the contract the Minister declared the following year. The auditor also found the Ministry of Education had paid another provider, Superior Auto, CI$600,000 over five years with no purchase agreement, and asked that "all outsourced employability programmes are supported by robust contracts or purchase agreements". Whether that was done, and what WORC has paid since May 2025, were among the questions put to the Ministry.

What the Code demands

The Government's own rulebook names the tools for managing exactly this. The Ministerial Code of Conduct, approved by Cabinet in July 2021, says "appearances and propriety can be as important as an actual conflict of interest"; that a pecuniary conflict "could, for example, relate to...the turnover of business in which a Minister has an ownership interest"; that ministers "must not take any active part in the day-to-day management or operation of any business"; that "the Governor and the Premier should be advised in writing of possible or perceived conflicts...that require ongoing management"; and that where a conflict "is substantial and enduring, it may be necessary for the Premier to consider a permanent change to some or all of the Minister's portfolio responsibilities". Whether any of those steps was taken is not public. TCJ read all 21 Official Hansard Reports from June 2025 to June 2026 and found no spoken declaration of interest by Mr Myles MP and no mention of the company; no Cabinet minute, register entry or ministry instruction recording a recusal, a transfer or written advice to the Governor and the Premier has been published.

The money, and what moved

Inspire was designed to run on public funding, and its founder said so. "The government should be spending three times what I am spending," he said in July 2021; in April 2023 he needed "the commitment from government, real commitment". The budget line he asked for is now one his Government sets: the 2026 and 2027 Budget Statements put the Ministry of Education and Training's "Services to Improve Workforce Readiness" output at about CI$2.08 million a year, against a 2025 forecast of CI$596,759, and name no provider.

The unit that spends it is no longer his, and that is the strongest fact in his favour. The National Training and Development Unit ran the WORC programmes he declared; the Ministry's 2025 Annual Report records its transfer to Education "as of midpoint of 2025", and Rolston Anglin MP confirmed it in Finance Committee on 14 November 2025 after Kenneth Bryan MP noted the WORC budget was "a whopping $5 million less", in Cayman dollars. The same report still lists Inspire among WORC's 2025 TVET partners, for "heavy equipment and construction".

Three public bodies outside his portfolio have named the company since. On 31 October 2025 the government-owned insurer CINICO announced a Safe Driver Programme that refers young drivers to Inspire; CINICO's FAQ says Inspire "owns and operates" it and the driver pays, "$290, a $60 savings" on the $350 rate, all in Cayman dollars, with nothing published showing CINICO pays Inspire. On 19 November 2025 the Deputy Premier, Gary Rutty MP, listed "Inspire Cayman" among the Department of Tourism's third-party training providers. On 7 August 2026 the Ministry of Education and Training named Inspire as the partner delivering Ready2Work KY, a government-funded programme whose applicants must be registered with WORC. None of the three named a contract value or a selection process, and none mentioned the Minister. The Education Council's register, as at June 2026, lists seven post-compulsory TVET institutions, five of them specialists and two registered for "General" TVET: Inspire and the Brainchild Learning and Development Centre. Inspire's registration, its prison work and its WORC contracts were all decided under previous governments.

The watchdog

Whether the interest has been managed is a question for the Commission for Standards in Public Life, which keeps the Register and must investigate on any member of the public's complaint. Its chairman, Woody Foster, told Radio Cayman in July that an 80% filing rate was "an abysmal number because it is mandatory and you must do it". He is Managing Director of Foster's Food Fair Ltd and "an integral member of the Foster Group Board of Directors", according to the Governor's Office announcement of his appointment as Chairman from 1 May 2025. The Register records that Inspire's build-out was financed by a loan from Foster Group. The date, amount and status of the loan are not public, and nothing in the entry suggests any impropriety by Mr Foster or the firm.

The Commission answered TCJ's questions in writing on 3 November through Lise Hurlstone, Acting Deputy Manager of the Commissions Secretariat. Asked whether it regards a minister's own-name shareholding in, and declared WORC contract held by, a company delivering programmes gated on his ministry's register as a possible or perceived conflict, it said: "The Commission expects all PiPL to abide by the principle of honesty by declaring any private interests relating to their public duties and to take steps to resolve any conflicts of interest arising in a way that protects the public interest. If the Commission comes to understand that a possible or perceived conflict of interest has arisen and has been inappropriately managed, it may subsequently consider if further action needs to be taken on a case-by-case examination of the facts available on the matter at the time." PiPL is the Act's term for persons in public life. Asked who screens a complaint where a member has a business connection to its subject, it said a conflicted member "would act in accordance with the Commission's policy on conflicts of interest", which requires him to "excuse him/herself from that portion of the said meeting and any further discussions or follow up". Asked whether any member had declared a connection to the Minister or Inspire, or recused from any matter concerning them, it said: "Inspire Cayman and BYFC are not public service entities and as such there is no need for persons in public life to declare any donations made to them." Mr Foster, written to in his personal capacity, did not reply by the deadline.

What was asked, and of whom

TCJ put written questions on 29 October with replies due at 17:00 on 3 November. WORC and the Ministry's Chief Officer were asked for the date, value and procurement route of the contract the Minister declared, every payment to Inspire and other providers since 2019, whether WORC issued the "confirmation letter" Inspire cites and to whom else, how many permits have carried a training condition since 9 May 2025, and what written arrangements manage the conflict between the ministry's minister and its contractor. The Governor's Office was asked whether Mr Foster disclosed the loan on appointment and what recusal arrangements exist. Mr Foster was asked when the loan was made, whether he approved it, whether he disclosed it and whether he would recuse from a complaint about the Minister. The Auditor General, the Chamber of Commerce and the Opposition were asked about Recommendation 4, the cost of training conditions and whether a complaint would be filed to test the Commission. Only the Commission replied. On 2 November TCJ also offered the Minister, through his office, a face-to-face interview on Inspire; no answer was received. The full questions to each party, and any reply, are published online, and any reply will be carried in full when it arrives.

Mr Myles MP said on Sunday that it matters to take a stance publicly, with his name, on matters that touch the integrity of government. His name is on the Gazette notice and the Register entry. What is not yet on the record, in his name or anyone's, is how the interest they declare is managed.

The numbers

About CI$430,000: what WORC agreed to pay Inspire for four programmes in 2023, the only official figure (Auditor General, 2024). Unpublished: what WORC has paid since the Minister took office. CI$2,080,014 and CI$2,090,014: the Education ministry's workforce readiness output for 2026 and 2027, against CI$596,759 forecast for 2025; Inspire is the only named Ready2Work partner, its share unpublished (Budget Statements). CI$3,500 to CI$5,350: the price of one Inspire certificate course (company correspondence with a prospective employer, seen by TCJ). Two: general TVET providers on the Education Council's register, Inspire and one other (June 2026). 21: Official Hansard Reports read by TCJ with no declaration of interest by the Minister and no mention of the company. One: reply received to TCJ's questions, from the Commission for Standards in Public Life.

How this was reported

The Minister's statement is quoted from his Facebook page. The Gazette notice is at pages 554 to 555 of Issue No. 07/2025; the constitutional provision is section 62(1)(g). The Register entry is described from its public transcription of September 2025. The Act, the Regulations, the 2026 amending regulations and the Ministerial Code are quoted from the official texts. The Prospect result is from the Returning Officer's report; the portfolios from the Office of the Premier's release of 9 May 2025. The Auditor General's figures are from the May 2024 performance audit. The Finance Committee exchanges are from the official reports of 14 and 19 November 2025; the Hansard search covered the 21 reports from 25 June 2025 to 24 June 2026; the Minister's statements to Parliament of 1 May and 1 October 2026 are on parliament.ky. The transfer of the training unit and WORC's 2025 partners are from the Ministry's 2025 Annual Report; the output cost from the 2026 and 2027 Budget Statements; the register count from the Ministry of Education and Training's publication of 7 July 2026. CINICO's arrangement is from its release of 31 October 2025, its programme page and its Safe Driver Programme FAQ (version 6, January 2026); the Education ministry's from its release of 7 August 2026. The Commission's answers are from its email of 3 November; its guidance, Manual and consultation from its website and gov.ky. The Chairman's roles are from the Acting Governor's announcement of 9 July 2025 and his words from Radio Cayman's broadcast of 27 July 2026. Inspire's correspondence with prospective employers is quoted from copies TCJ holds; dates, channels and recipients are withheld to protect the sources.