Editorial Note: The Caymanian Journal (TCJ) is an affiliate of Stingray Media Group. Compass Media, publisher of the Cayman Compass, where Ms Bush is now Publisher, competes with TCJ for readers and advertisers.

The Office of the Premier spent CI$42,683.68 between February and April 2026 on communication coaching by San Francisco firm Decker Communications, records released to The Caymanian Journal (TCJ) under the Freedom of Information Act show.

The records, released on 15 September under reference FOI/119204 in response to a request TCJ's news desk emailed on 17 August under the Freedom of Information Act (2021 Revision), show that the government agreed a US$28,000 statement of work with Decker Communications Inc. for two one-day "Communicate to Influence" workshops held on 2 and 3 February 2026, paid a further US$2,000 for a virtual "custom workshop" on 20 January, reimbursed US$3,145.97 in travel and logistics expenses for the two Decker trainers, whom the firm calls "program leaders", and paid Hotel Indigo Grand Cayman US$18,757.99 for the venue, audio-visual services, meals and three nights' accommodation for the two trainers. The combined total is US$51,903.96, recorded in the government's financial management system as CI$42,683.68.

Decker told TCJ by email on 22 September that "the request came through our open contact form via our website from Pilar Bush". Ms Bush was Chief of Staff in the Office of the Premier from 2025 until 7 September 2026, seven months after the February sessions, when she stepped down to become Publisher of Compass Media, a private-sector media company, from 14 September. Ms Bush did not respond to telephone calls from TCJ. The Office of the Premier was asked on 16 September and again on 5 October whether it considered the engagement to have delivered value for taxpayers' money, and whether more coaching is planned, and has not answered. Presenting the government's 2026-2027 budget statement to Parliament on 6 November 2025, the Premier said: "Our approach focuses on easing pressure on families, improving access to affordable housing, investing in childcare affordability, and building a sustainable path forward – not simply spending for headlines."

Each payment was made from the cost centre of the Office of the Premier. The office is headed by Premier André Ebanks MP, leader of The Caymanian Community Party (TCCP) and Member of Parliament for West Bay South, who was sworn in on 6 May 2025 at the head of the National Coalition for Caymanians (NCFC) government. The statement of work names the first day's participants as "Caucus Members" and leaves the second day's as "Group TBD". The Office of the Premier told TCJ in its decision letter that "not all workshop participants were employees of the OTP or elected officials/members of the National Coalition for Caymanians Government Caucus", but the released records do not identify who else attended, and the office has not answered TCJ's questions on attendance.

What was bought

The statement of work is a two-page letter from Decker addressed to "Samuel", with no surname given, and countersigned on behalf of the Cayman Islands Government by Jason Webster as Acting Cabinet Secretary on 26 January 2026. The government's organisational chart places the Office of the Premier within the Cabinet Office, whose Chief Officer is Cabinet Secretary Samuel Rose, and lists Mr Webster as Deputy Chief Officer for Policy Coordination. The Cabinet Office's official travel return for January 2026 records Mr Rose in Singapore from 15 to 29 January representing the government at the Global Government Summit. The Office of the Premier said in its decision letter that the name of the civil servant who agreed the statement of work had not been redacted.

Under the agreement, Decker undertook to run two "programmatic engagements" with "a maximum number of 8-10 participants each (8 recommended for full coaching experience)", with two of the firm's "program leaders" facilitating each session and one-to-one coaching "included only as group sizes allow". The firm agreed to supply "all video equipment for recording, all engagement materials, in addition to a customized workbook", and reserved "the exclusive copyright and ownership rights" to its materials. The fee was described as "Your investment for this engagement is $28,000", with travel, shipping and incidental expenses to be billed separately at cost.

That works out at US$14,000 for each one-day session, or US$1,400 a head if both sessions were filled to the ten-participant maximum, against a published open-enrolment price for Decker's one-day public course of US$1,300 a participant for a virtual session and US$1,600 in person, according to the firm's website on 9 October 2026. Asked whether the fee was typical, Decker said: "The per-session fee for this engagement reflects a private, custom, in-person program for up to ten participants with two program leaders on-site - a different offering from our open-enrollment course, which is priced per individual seat. Custom private engagements of this kind, with dedicated facilitators and included coaching, are commonly priced in that range, so the fee is consistent with our standard pricing for this type of delivery." The firm confirmed that "attendance at each session was limited to 10 individuals".

The agreement provided that the government "will provide the training room facilities at 133 Elgin Avenue, Grand Cayman", the address of the Government Administration Building, "or alternate location". The sessions were held at Hotel Indigo on Seven Mile Beach. The hotel's invoice for the event, headed "Office of Premier Decker Training", records a banquet charge of US$13,967.85 dated 3 February and a US$360 "F&B Incidental" charge. The Office of the Premier said in its letter that the invoice "includes charges for venue rental, audio/visual services, and food and beverage" and that the US$360 "was for meals for the two Decker Communications Program Leaders".

Two Hotel Indigo folios show the trainers stayed in separate rooms from 1 to 4 February. Each room cost US$2,215.07 for three nights, comprising nightly room charges of between US$458.15 and US$590.75, tourist tax, a service charge and a US$75 nightly resort fee. Both folios were settled by deposit transfer at check-in on 1 February and the payment is recorded against the Office of the Premier on 2 February.

The cancellation terms Decker set out required the government to pay the full US$28,000 fee, plus travel costs, if the engagement was cancelled or rescheduled within 14 days of the start date, 50 per cent between 15 and 21 days out, and 25 per cent between 22 and 30 days out. The letter also stated that, if the government were unable to hold the sessions in person, Decker would deliver them virtually on the same dates.

Decker Communications, founded in 1979 according to its website, describes itself as "a communications coaching, consulting and training firm that develops confident, influential communicators for the world's most admired companies". Decker said it could confirm "we delivered communication skills training for the Cayman Islands Government in January and February 2026", but added: "Consistent with our practice across all client engagements, we don't publicly discuss program content or outcomes, which we treat as confidential to the client relationship."

How the contract was awarded

The released records do not show how Decker was selected. Under regulation 4 of the Procurement Regulations (2022 Revision), government entities "are required to undertake a competitive process when procuring any goods, services or works except where it can be demonstrated that the procurement meets the criteria for the direct award process set out in regulation 5". For procurements below CI$100,000, regulation 7(2)(b) allows restricted tendering where "a minimum of three quotes are available from local suppliers". A direct award requires a written request stating which of the regulation 5(1) criteria applies and, below CI$100,000, "the approval of the Chief Officer". Regulation 5(4) then requires that "public notification of direct award contracts or purchases greater than ten thousand dollars must be posted on the web site designated by the Central Procurement Office within thirty days of the contract award or purchase date", stating the entity, the vendor, the date, a description and the value. The US$28,000 statement of work was recorded as CI$23,240.

No tender, request for quotations, award or direct-award notice relating to the engagement appears on the government's public procurement portal, where other public bodies, among them Judicial Administration, the Public Works Department, the Health Services Authority, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Portfolio of Legal Affairs, post periodic logs of their purchases and direct awards above CI$10,000. Decker, asked whether the engagement was obtained through a competitive process or by direct approach, did not say; its response was that the request had come through its website contact form from Ms Bush. By comparison, the UK Department for Work and Pensions published a contract notice in 2025 for "Media Training for 6 Ministers to be able to deal confidently in front of TV and Radio", awarded to Freud Communications Limited at £10,000.02 excluding VAT for 4 March to 30 April 2025.

The Cabinet Office's record on publishing awards was examined by the Auditor General earlier this year. In his report to those charged with governance on the office's 2024 audit, signed on 20 May 2026, Auditor General Patrick Smith found that "the Office failed to publish a notice of an award for contracts awarded to a telecommunications service provider ($151,000), an advisory firm ($150,400), and an event hiring supplier ($107,700)", and recommended that management "publish a notice of award for contracts exceeding $10,000 on the website designated by the Central Procurement Office, i.e., Bonfire". Management accepted the finding, said the task was "incredibly resource intensive" given "the extensive volume of procurement which Cabinet Office undertakes", and undertook that training would be provided in 2026. The report concerned 2024 and did not examine the Decker engagement, and it recorded that the audit "did not reveal fraud or illegal acts".

Cost of the engagement

The payment table in the Office of the Premier's decision letter records five payments, all from the office's cost centre. Decker's invoice of 20 January for the virtual custom workshop, US$2,000, was paid on 6 March as CI$1,660. Its invoice of 1 February for the two in-person Communicate to Influence workshops, US$28,000, was paid on 24 February as CI$23,240. Its invoice of 28 February for the two trainers' travel and logistics, US$3,145.97, was paid on 10 April as CI$2,611.16. Hotel Indigo's invoice of 4 February for venue rental, audio-visual services and food and beverage, US$14,327.85, was paid on 24 February as CI$11,462.28, and the two accommodation folios, US$4,430.14 together, were paid on 2 February as CI$3,710.24. The office's recorded total is CI$42,683.68.

What the records do not show

TCJ's request sought records identifying anyone engaged since 6 May 2025, the date the Premier took the oath of office, to provide "media training, media coaching, communications coaching, interview preparation, presentation training, public-speaking coaching, or similar services to the Premier", together with contracts, invoices, payment records and any records identifying the professional or media affiliations of the people providing them.

The response identifies Decker Communications as the sole supplier for the period. The names of the two trainers, and of the Decker employee who drafted the statement of work, were redacted under section 23(1) of the Act, which exempts "the unreasonable disclosure of personal information of any individual". The office said there was "no legitimate interest in disclosure that requires their identification as individuals". Decker, asked to identify the two trainers and describe their backgrounds, did not name them, saying: "Our program leaders are professional communication trainers, and neither they nor Decker as a firm have a media affiliation that influences our work or programming."

The office also withheld the "detailed supporting records" behind the US$3,145.97 expenses invoice, which the invoice itself describes as two lines of "Expenses for travel and logistics for the Communicate to Influence Workshops delivered in the Cayman Islands on 2/2/26 & 2/3/26", of US$1,647.19 and US$1,498.78. The office said there was "a legitimate interest in the total amount paid for the expenses being disclosed, which is the promotion of transparency and accountability for expenditure of public funds", but that "it is not necessary to identify exactly which restaurants were patronised and other information about expenses relating to transportation and meals that could identify an individual's location and other data". Suppliers' bank details were redacted under section 21(1)(b), which protects commercial interests where disclosure would prejudice them, and the signatures of civil servants were removed under section 23(1). The decision letter, signed by Information Manager Jana Pouchie-Bush on 15 September, notes that TCJ may request an internal review under section 33 of the Act and thereafter appeal to the Ombudsman under section 42.

The US$2,000 virtual session of 20 January does not appear in the statement of work. Decker's invoice for it, dated the same day, describes it only as "Custom Workshop - Cayman Islands Government - Virtual". Decker did not say what the session covered or who attended it.

Responses

TCJ emailed Angela Piercy, Head of Communications and Public Affairs in the Office of the Premier, on 16 September with questions on who attended the sessions, whether the Premier and Ms Bush took part, how Decker was selected, whether a direct-award notice was published, why Hotel Indigo was used, what the 20 January session consisted of and whether the office considered the spending of public money on the engagement to have delivered value. Ms Piercy asked for more time on 17, 18 and 21 September, citing the office's workload, and said she was "responding to your outlet's queries in the order sent". TCJ followed up by email on 2 October, asking for a response by 5 October; Ms Piercy telephoned the same day to ask for a further extension, and TCJ sent a shortened list of ten questions on 5 October. No response had been received by the time of publication. Decker Communications responded by email on 22 September to questions sent on 16 September, and its answers are reported above.

The released records, and the answers received so far, leave open who attended the two sessions at Hotel Indigo and the 20 January virtual workshop, whether the Premier took part, and how Decker came to be selected. The statement of work's "Caucus Members" for the first day and "Group TBD" for the second, and the office's statement that not all participants were its employees or caucus members, are the only indications in the record of who was trained.