GOVERNMENT SEEKING TO MAKE SALARY DEDUCTIONS PERMANENT

The Executive Council has authorised the Attorney General’s Chambers to seek legal advice from Anthony Astaphan, a Dominica-based Lawyer, on behalf on behalf of the Anguilla Government, with regard to theimplications of discontinuing the deferred payments to public servants and other Government officials.

Mr. Astaphan serves throughout the Caribbean region as a Legal Counsel to Governments. The Executive Council has agreed to pay Mr. Astaphan US$10,000 for his services.

A source close to the Anguilla Government said that the Attorney General’s Chambers on the island could not objectively deal with the matter as personnel within that Chambers are among the public officials affected by the deferred payments.

The matter arose from cuts made to the salary of public servants by both the previous and present Governments Anguillla as a means of reducing expenditure due to the difficult financial situation affecting the island. The previous AUF Government promised that the salary deductions would be repaid when the economy improved substantially, thus giving public servants reason to look forward to the repayments. The current AUM Government, which made the second deductions, did not actually say the money would be repaid, but public servants nevertheless hoped to be refunded later as well. Commenting on the previous Government’s undertaking, Chief Minister and Minister of Finance, Hubert Hughes, said that such repayment was unheard of anywhere.

It is understood that the money owed to public servants from the deductions is reaching a level where Government may not, in the foreseeable future, be in a position to repay. Hence the legal advice to consider the implications of discontinuing the deferred payments whereby the assumed temporary arrangement would in fact be made permanent.