As Anguilla’s 2012 budget was being debated in the House of Assembly on Tuesday, December 11, Minister of Social Development, Edison Baird, expressed the view that unless the Government signed the Framework for Fiscal Responsibility(FFR) – the UK Government’s partnership agreement with the Overseas Territories – the budget would not be approved.
Mr. Baird was at the time reminding the Speaker, Mrs. Barbara Webster-Bourne, of a letter written to her by Governor Alistair Harrison on Budget Day, November 28. The Governor advised her that he had not yet received instructions from London to assent to the budget. He anticipated that the budget would be discussed by Chief Minister Hughes and Mark Simmonds, Minister for the Overseas Territories, in London the following week.
“Madam Speaker, I don’t believe that the essence of this letter from the Governor to you has been grasped by all the members of the House, including members of the Opposition, as well as some members on the Government side,” Baird said. “We can discuss this budget a hundred times; and we can pass this budget a hundred times. But unless it is assented to, or agreed by the Governor, then all this discussion going to be futile. So we must ask ourselves this question: ‘What is the real message contained in the letter to you as Speaker of the House?’”
In order to put his statement in context, and for members tounderstand the essence of the letter,Mr. Baird referred to the situation in the Cayman Islands where an FFR arrangement, similar to the one for Anguilla, was drawn up by the British Government, but was ignored by the territory’s Premier, McKeeva Bush.
“But I have here, Madam Speaker, a statement from the same McKeeva Bush who said that he would not, under any condition, pass the Framework for Fiscal Responsibility,” Mr. Baird went on. “But the same McKeeva Bush had to lap his tail between his legs, go into the Legislative Assembly, and pass the Framework for Fiscal Responsibility because the British Government said that unless you pass the Framework for Fiscal Responsibility, in a manner that we approve of, we will not approve your budget.”
Returning to the position in Anguilla, Mr. Baird said: “We are here discussing the budget, but what I am saying [is that] the relevance of what we are discussing today, is a function of our understanding of the Framework for Fiscal Responsibility. If we do not pass the Framework for Fiscal Responsibility into law, the British Government will not sign the budget; and if the British Government does not sign the budget, it has implications for the running of Government.
“According to the Financial Administration and Audit Act, Section 27, if the budget is not passed, then the Government can continue to limber on for four more months. Come the end of four more months, at midnight, they cannot spend the money; they cannot collect the money; and the Government ceases to exist. So one or two undesirablesfrom Anguilla’s standpoint will happen: either the Governor sends us back to the polls, or the British Government assumes responsibility for the running of Anguilla.”
In carefully analysing the provisions of the FFR, Mr. Baird stated: “I want to emphasise, and re-emphasise, the point that unless we pass the Framework for Fiscal Responsibility this budget, no matter how many times we come in here and discuss it, will never be assented to, or agreed by, the Governor – and when I say the Governor – I mean the British Government.”
The budget debate continued on Wednesday morning with Opposition Leader, Evans Rogers, delivering the rest of his contribution. Chief Minister and Minister of Finance, Hubert Hughes, and other members on the Government side were still to speak.
Mr Hughes recently expressed opposition to the FFR saying, among other things, that Anguilla’s development would be stalled by the policy under which the Government would not be allowed to accept a project of more than ten million dollars. Commenting on the requirement for the Overseas Territories to follow the guidelines of the FFR, in order to obtain UK approval, he called it as blackmail.
