April 10th, 2014
Honourable Mr Hubert Hughes
Chief Minister and Minister of Tourism
Ministry of Finance
The Secretariat
The Valley
Dear Honourable Mr Hughes:
Your letter of April 7th, 2014 refers.
As members of the Anguilla Tourist Board, charged with the fiduciary responsibility of overseeing the planning, development and promotion of Anguilla’s tourism, and to advise t he Minister of Tourism on matters pertaining to Anguilla’s tourism under the Anguilla Tourist Board Act of 2008, we hereby acknowledge receipt of your letter dated April 7th 2014. We have attached a copy of your letter for ease of reference. We are aware of our obligation under the ATB Act to comply with all written directives from you. We wish to state that it is our intention to comply with each directive given, as we have done in the past. We are of the view, however, that much of what is written in your letter comes as a result of inaccurate and misguided information provided to you, and therefore we would like to address the following issues raised in your letter for the purpose of clarifying the record and having the facts documented.
1. Sustainable Tourism Master Plan
In your letter reference is made to your letter of October 2013. You noted your disappointment in the Board’s failure to execute a strategy which took account of the Sustainable Tourism Master Plan. The Board in fact responded to your letter, refuting this statement and clearly outlining how the Board’s actions did in fact reflect the STMP. A copy of the ATB’s response is attached for ease of reference as Appendix 1.
2. Spending of thousands of dollars of tax payers’ money
You refer to your letter of February 4th, 2014, referencing a lack of co-ordination and cooperation with the Ministry, and referencing concerns about the spending of thousands of dollars of tax payers’ money in a manner that most Anguillians would not countenance. We wish to rest ate what was noted in our response to your February 4th letter which stated that “the ATB has always acted within the mandate and guidance of the Tourist Board Act, and has sought since 2011 to diligently manage t he funds allocated to the ATB so as to ensure compliance with the budgetary guide lines. “In the said letter dated February is” 2014, the Board responded to refute this same issue. In this letter, specif ic reference was made to the allegations of financial misconduct by the Board, with a request from the Board to you for an explanation of the alleged misspend. Again, a copy of the Board’s response is included for ease of reference as Appendix 2.
Our records show t hat we received no response to either letter sent t o you, even though these letters contained requests for clarification on a number of issues.
3. ATB Board Secretary convened a meeting without informing the Chairman of the Board.
In paragraph 2, page 1, you state that lias I understand it , the Secretary of the ATB Board convened a meeting without informing the Chairman of the Board and at that meeting the Board agreed expenditure outside of my direction of February 4th. “This is an inaccurate statement. Our records show that you have in fact been misinformed on this entire matter. Our records would show that there is an email trail showing the origin of the request for the meeting, and that the Chairman was duly copied on these emails; the meeting was not in fact convened by the Board Secretary, but arose out of discussions which were duly minuted for the Board meeting; and there is no record of any expenditure agreed or discussed by the Board in our Minutes, save for expenditure already committed to prior to the receipt of your letter of February 4th. (SeeAppendix 3).
4. Annual Marketing Strategy
In your letter mention is also made that you had not received the annual marketing strategy of the ATB by April 1st. In the letter dated February 13th, the Board advised you that the requested date of February 14th was not feasible, and requested an extension on the submission timeline. You may also beaware that during this period the Director of Tourism was required to undertake prolonged travel of two weeks from the island on ATB business. Despite this, the plan was completed and presented to the Board in a Board meeting on March 10th. At that meeting the Board agreed that t he plan, with some modifications, should be presented and explained directly to the Chief Minister. However, you were at that time travelling and off island for a period of two weeks. Upon your return efforts were made to convene a meeting with you to present the plan, without success. The plan was eventually hand-delivered to you at your home on Thursday, April 3rd.
The summation that no marketing document existed previously is also erroneous. The ATB has been working with a strategic marketing plan, which alongside its budgets and individual market plans, have guided the ATB’s efforts in the marketplace. However, as was pointed out in our first letter of response (see Appendix 1), and in accordance with the STMP, provisions are currently being made by the Ministry of Tourism for securing the services of a technical advisor in marketing management to advise the Board on the development of marketing systems and capacity building. The first step for this was undertaken in consultation with the Ministry’s technical adviser, Ms. Jasmin Garraway, in the form of the devising of the Terms of Reference for the Marketing Consultant. The ATB recognizes that this is in fact a process, but also recognizes that as a destination we do not have the liberty of ceasing our activities ” cold turkey” in the marketplace. Just as the Ministry of Education was not expected to stop teaching until their strategic plan was completed, so, too, the Tourist Board should not be expected to cease marketing until the strategic exercise is completed. The actions that have been taken to mandate this have effectively hampered the ATB’s ability to fulfill its marketing responsibilities, and this will ultimately affect our presence in the marketplace, and could cost us our Summer season.
5. Britto Agency’s role in undertaking branding
On page 6, #5, you indicate that the Britto Agency’s role in undertaking branding for Anguilla has already been sanctioned by Executive Council. The ATB is hereby respectfully requesting for its records a copy of the relevant Minute from EXCO detailing this position. We also hasten to poin t out that initial projections for the Britto Agency brand exercise indicated US$250,OOO.00, while the f igures submitted in the Branding Dossier (see Appendix 4) total approximately US$5OO,OOO.OO, thus creating an immediate deficit for the ATB’s budget allocation for 2014.
On page 7, #6, you make reference to a Power-point presentation. This is actually a professionallydone, high quality visual resource that serves not only as a power-point presentation used in the same way as a video at tradeshows, but also as a tool for at training seminars and workshops, as a resource for travel agents and tour operators and as a key part of our online travel agent training program. As for the anomalies on the invoicing, once again, the ATB is asking for clarification on these statements.
6. CAMC
On page 7, b) you mention your disappointment in the fact that the ATB negotiated a Per Diem of US$650.00 per day with CAMC. The process for the selection and hiring of the North America representative was managed by the Ministry, not the ATB, and the ATB was merely required to sign the contract with the successful company. Therefore, the negotiation for the Per Diem was not done by the ATB as stated in your letter. CAMC, despite being contractually entitled to the US$650 per diem, also raised the issue of per diem as a concern to the ATB, and was prepared to accept the ATB’s counter proposal of US$300.00 per day inclusive of expenses related to meals, transportation and incidentals, with the amount reduced to US$ 200.00 per day for events held within a 50-mile radius of Miami. During the period while the amount of the per diem was under review, CAMC declined to charge per diem at that rate despite their contractual entitlement.
On page 7, c) you reference invoices submitted in the amount of nearly US$60,OOO.00. Our records show that this amount was in fact based on an accumulation of expenses over a period of two to three months, and which served as reimbursement for expenses incurred by the company on behalf of the ATB. Additionally, the amounts paid per month vary based upon the level of activity engaged upon by the company on behalf of Anguilla. Since CAMC actually came in under budget for their marketing allocation for 2013, resulting in a total annual spend for North America of US$651,OOO.00 inclusive of retainer fees and marketing, we do not understand how the calculation mentioned in your letter of US$1,400,OOO.00 was arrived at.
On page 7 d), you reference a lesser rate of US$250.00 that was passed and agreed by the Tourist Board.
Unfortunately this information that has been given is also inaccurate. The ATB’s records show no such negotiation with CAMC, and no notification of any instructions to the Director to implement such amount by the ATB Chairman. In fact, we refer you to paragraph 4, captioned page 7 b) on t he previous page, which clearly outlines the true circumstances concerning the Per Diem.
On page 8, e) reference is made to the contract negotiated by the Ministry for the Britto Agency, where it states that the Britto Agency has a limited expense clause, and has yet to submit an expense. While this may be so at this time, since the scope of work that has at this time been undertaken contractually by the Agency for Anguilla is relatively limited, we remind you that in January 2014 the ATB, through its legal counsel, sought to advise you as the Minister of Tourism against the signing of an open-ended contract in the absence of a budget for the proposed WTA event, expressly for the purpose of guarding against unlimited spending of the tax payers’ money (please see Appendix 5 – ATB’s position on the WTA Awards event). Despite the statement made in the letter of having had no expenses submitted, the ATB has already had to payout US$5O,OOO.OO in fees for the proposed WIE event, and is expected by way of this directive to immediately payout another US$5O,OOO.OO in favour of the WTA event. This is in addition to expenses incurred by the Britto Agency which the ATB is expected to absorb related to the branding exercise, visits on island, and the implementation of the five proposed initiatives that the company has been contracted to produce for Anguilla. The two sums of money noted in this paragraph, are deposits only and commit the ATB to further payments.
On page 8, f) you express your concern about the failure of CAMC to deliver coverage in any internationally recognized, high -quality media outlet s. This st atement is inaccurate and appears as though you have been misled on the quality of work of the CAMC team. For a full listing of the media outlets that they have engaged with on Angui lla’s behalf, please refer to Appendix 5.
On page 8, h), you reference an insurance policy that is not a part of CAMC’s contract. Again, this is an erroneous statement as the policy referred to does indeed form part of the contract, and was included as part of the initial contractual negotiat ions between the Ministry of Tourism and CAMC.
7. Directive
The ATB notes your comments on the CTO Week events in NY. Again, this matter was addressed at length in our initial correspondence to you of November 2013, and to which we refer you once again at Appendix 1. Additionally, the ATB recognizes the importance of the image of the destination as portrayed through its display table at the Media Marketplace, which is the event referenced in your letter. Ultimately we believe, however, that more weight should be given to the reports arising out of the follow up to the event. For a review of the reports from last year, kindly refer to Appendix 7.
References to the NY Times Show do not take account of the decisions made by the ATB in conjunction with its Marketing reps to trim costs of participation and wastage engendered by a huge booth and marketing gimmicks which often im peded the ability of industry partners to effectively carry out their business, whilst still ensuring a presence in the marketplace. Nevertheless, such reports should be balanced. The reports on Anguilla’s presence at Marketplace 2014 and the Washington Travel Show, for example, were that Anguilla’s display was one of the most striking at each show venue.
The ATB notes your directive pertaining to the ATB’s budget which will be “ring-fenced” to execute the initiatives of the Britto Agency . The ATB is fully prepared to comply with t his written directive as required under the Act. However, as a public body tasked wi th stewardship of an EC$9.2 million dollar budget, conveyed as a subvention from the Ministry of Finance, and representing the hard -earned collections from the people of Anguilla, whom we ultimately serve, the Board must nevertheless remind you as the Chief Minister, Minister of Finance, and “the ultimate steward of public funds” t hat the sum of the cost of these initiatives which you have reserved from the ATB’s ove rall marketing budget of US$2,067,OOO.OO stands at US$500,OOO. When coupled with the projected costs of the branding exercise at US$500,OOO.OO, we are looking at US$1,OOO,OOO.OO of t he taxpayers’ money plus expenses which will be expended on branding Anguilla and the production of 5 initiatives which speak to what the Britto Agency refers t o as the 1% – the luxury market . This approach effectively fails to address the midmarket sector and leaves the rest of the island’s markets vulnerable and without adequate funding. The mid-market sector includes our lo cal properties owned and operated by Anguillans who themselves form a huge part of the tax-paying population. It would therefore be remiss of the ATB not to provide you with the advice and information concerning these matters which legally fall under its purview under the ATB Act.
8. WTA Event
On page 8, #7, reference is made to the WTA event, and th e fact that this has “been agreed indeed by the ATB”. As a point of clarification, please note that the contract in question was in fact signed by the Chairman of the ATB without t he knowledge, consent or approval of the Board . In a subsequent meeting with Mr. Hanley, the Director of the ATB and t he ATB’s legal counsel, you req uested that Mr. Hanley worked with the ATB’s Director Mrs Candis Niles to gather more information about the WTA event t o ensure that the ATB would not be committed to spending huge sums of money on this event.
The delay in payment was occasioned by your request for your Political Adviser, Mr Hanley, to obtain “further details on the costing of the event”, and Mr Hanley’s notification that he was “still awaiting the requested information” from the Britto Agency. In light of the directive now given in writing, however, the Board has proceeded to authorize the required payment and issue the check as required, even though we still have received no details on the budget including the concept and costs of dinner for 300 guests, or the list of potential sponsors and their proposed contributions, and therefore are clueless as to what the final expense for Anguilla is expected to be. The ATB expressed their concerns with this approach, and with the approach to the WIE event, where the ATBwas required to sign off on a contract under duress, without being given enough time to review the contract (you may recall that we were directed to review the document in consultation with our Legal Counsel in a meeting with you, the TOC and the Britto Agency, and without the necessary information on the cost of the event, and today, we still have no information pertaining to this upcoming event. Yet contracts have been signed, and monies paid as per your direction.
9. Blowing Point Terminal Branding
Please note that discussions on this sign were initiated with Mr Brown and Mr Webster since last year.
A quote was obtained from both gentlemen and the Board opted to go along with a design proposed by Mr Brown. After numerous discussions on the design logistics, his quote was submitted on November 29, 2013, and he had since then moved ahead to source the materials for the sign, which required a significant amount of engineering in the design, given the configuration of the existing poles that would support the sign. It is extremely unfortunate that this was not conveyed to you, as progress reports on the signage are recorded in our Minutes. Mr Brown has completed the work that the ATB requested of him, and therefore has a reasonable expectation to be paid. Clearly, this undertaking was not initiated after your letter of February 4th , and therefore Mr Brown should not be penalized. Furthermore, the sign is a general sign that incorporates Anguilla’s beloved three dolphins, and reflects the national colours of the island. It is very much in keeping with our other national symbols. The ATB is therefore respectfully requesting that you reconsider this position, and permit Mr Brown to continue with the erection of the sign which is a wonderful beacon for the port of entry, and which has been engineered, designed, and built by a young Anguillian designer/digital artist.
10 . Sponsorship –
Please note that sponsorship was not included in the SMP because the funds for this purpose are not taken from our marketing budget, but from our product development budget. There is no written criteria for the extension of sponsorship. The Board expressed the necessity for the establishment of such a policy, as is reflected in Board discussions; however, a formal policy has not yet been drafted. Requests received are usually discussed in a Board meeting or via round-robin email, and evaluated on the basis of promotional and/or marketing value; target audience; extent to which the event can generate heads in beds; extent to which events/opportunities may impact human resource development; extent to which event/opportunity may create product enrichment and enhancement.
The Board is also inclined to consider the social impact of an event/opportunity for we are aware that tourism safety and security are an integral part of a positive social climate.
11. Expenditure
You direct that no expenditure be undertaken without your knowledge and consent. Respectfully, we must point out to you that this has been done since your directive of February 4th, notwithstanding that such constraints have seriously compromised the abilities of this organization to carry out its duties and responsibilities. Any expenditure undertaken would have been related to work already agreed upon and undertaken on behalf of the ATB.
12. Festivals
In your letter of April 7th, 2014, you stated that “all major international and national events such as Literary festival, Festival del Mar, Moonsplash, Summer Carnival (sic), etc, the Britto Agency as Global Brand and PR consultant and the Oversight Committee for Tourism and International Representation (TIR) under my direction will have oversight on each event. In an email from the Chairma n of the ATB, he noted that “it has been decided this event (Lit Fest) now falls under Britto’s portfolio”. The events that you have outlined above, including Lit Fest, are all run by committees who oversee the organization and planning of the Festivals. Planning for this year’s events is already inadvanced stages, and monies have been spent to secure the necessary participation. The position t hat has been shared by you in this letter, and t he actions that have already been instituted by the Chairman of the Board in refusing to sign checks in relation to the Lit Fest, and the refusal of the Parliamentary Secret ary to permit the ATB to move ahead with the arrangement of a press trip to cover the Lit Fest events, are all jeopardizing the organization, implementation and outcomes of the Festival. As it is, we have been unable to move forward since February with the requisite advertising and promotion of the events because of the directives that have been issued. Festival del Mar is just over a week away, and plans are moving along for the Anguilla Yacht Regatta, the Taste of the Caribbean and the Anguilla Summer Festival, which are all initiatives supported by the ATB for their promotional value , but which are run by separate committees.
13. Concluding Remarks
In your concluding remarks, you reference the need to issue these directives as a means of ensuring some measure of functionality for the Board. It is the Board’s view, however, that the measure of dysfunctionality that you allude to has resulted directly from the ineptitude of the current Chairman of the Anguilla Tourist Board, as detailed in the Board’s position letter affixed as Appendix 7. Indeed, the Board has found itself in a place where its decisions are constantly igno red, misrepresented or miscommunicated by the Chairman of the ATB; information that the Board is expected to receive from the Chairma n is not shared; actions expected to be undertaken by th e Chairm an are left undone; and the conflict of interest created by the sitting of t he Chairman of the ATB on bot h the ATB and the TOC/TIR, has become untenable.
The concluding remarks of the letter of April 7th, 2014 also reference the need to “ensure effective accountability of tax-payers’ dollars”. The ATB categorically refutes this state ment, and maintains its position that all matters pertaining to the use of ATB funds were duly considered, discussed and minuted to ensure compliance with budgetary best practices. Indeed, it was out of concern for the tax payers’ dollars that the ATB sought to bring to the attention of the Chief Minister the potential danger of the open-ended contracts put fo rward for both the WIE and WTA as detailed by the ATB’s legal counsel.As was made clear in the ATB’s correspondence with the Minister on th e proposed initiatives of the Britto Agency, the Board’s concerns stemmed from the fact that no information on the budgets for these proposed events was given to the Board despite repeated requests for the same since January 2nd 2014. Despite not being given this information, we were directed by you to sign off on initial deposits for these events to the tune of US$100,000.00, thereby contract ually committing the ATB to both the WIE and the WTA events with no clear record of the associated cost.
As for the claims of fiduciary irresponsibility on the part of the Board, the Board reiterates its position that it is prepared to work with all parties involved to advance the obiectives of Anguilla’s tourism, and to do so in an environment of respect and professional courtesy. However, as a statutory body, the Board cannot be expected to voluntarily abdicate its responsibilities under the ATB Act, which is a legally binding document. As members of the Board we view your directive as the passing over of the powers of the Board given under the ATB Act. The Anguilla Tourist Board being f a legally constituted body. We are therefore copying the Attorney General and the ATb’s Legal Counsel on this letter to seek clarification on this.
We take this opportunity to apologize for any statements in this letter that may appear to challenge your authority. It is not the Board’s intention to do this. Your letter contained a number of inaccurate statements and mis-information that we thought should be brought to your attention as we believe that this mis-information as conveyed to you could discredit the Board and undermine the integrity of the Directors. It is for this reason that we have decided to send a copy of your letter and our response to you, to Her Excellency, Governor Christina Scott, and the Honourable Deputy Governor Mr Stanley Reid, who may have also been provided with this mis- information.
We were notified that you cancelled our long awaited meeting with you scheduled for Wednesday April 9th 2014 after waiting for over 2 weeks for the said meeting. We take this opportunity to request a meeting with you and members of you Cabinet and the TOC so that we may allow yourselves to review ‘the records with the Board and observe that the information that you were provided and continue to be provided is inaccurate.
Finally, the documents requested by you are included in the section of this letter marked “Directives”.
The Board trusts that some measure of clarity has been brought to the issues that we have raised in this letter, and looks forward to receiving your response.
Yours sincerely,
The Anguilla Tourist Board
(signed with consent on our behalf)
Candis A. Niles
Board Secretary
Encl
CC:
HEThe Governor, Ms. Christina Scott
Hon Minister of Home Affairs, Mr. Jerome Roberts
Hon Pari Secretary, Tourism, Mr Haydn Hughes
Permanent Secretary, Tourism, Mr Merwyn Rogers
Special Adviser, Hon Chief Minister, Mr Patrick Hanley
Hon Deputy Governor, Mr. Stanley Reid
Hon Minister of MICUH. Mr Evan Gumbs
Hon Attorney General, Mr James Wood
Perm .secretary, Finance, Mr Aidan Harrigan
ATB Legal Counsel, Mrs. Keesha Fleming-Lake
Editor’s Note:
This letter, which came to the attention of The Anguillian, is published as it is of public interest. Its publication is also in view of the importance of tourism to the economy of Anguilla and the livelihood of its citizens.
