Dear Mr Editor:
Whither Statutory Boards and the ANGLEC Board
The AUM Administration of Chief Minister Hubert Hughes has made a total mockery of the selection process for members of Statutory Boards and Government controlled companies and has compromised the system to such a degree that the next Government of Anguilla (if it is not the AUM) will have a real challenge in eradicating the dark stain placed on the system of Board member selection.
Statutory Boards are organizations that have been given autonomy to perform an operational function by legal statutes passed as Acts in parliament. The statutes define the purpose, rights and powers of the authority. They usually report to one specific ministry.
In Anguilla, the Governemnt has established the Anguilla Health Authority (AHA), Anguilla Social Security Board (ASSB), Anguilla Development Board (ADB), Anguilla Water Authority and the Anguilla Air and Sea Ports Authority (ASPA) under this type of arrangement. The Ministry responsible for these Boards have the authority to select members to the Boards.
A cursory examination reveals the following:
1. On coming into office, the AUM radically revamped the Boards with no concern for maintaining sufficient numbers of the existing members it met there in order to ensure that there was some continuity in actions, and that critical institutional Board knowledge was available to the new Board.
2. The AUM haphazardly placed many persons on the Boards whose only qualification for serving on the particular board was their affiliation to the AUM party.
3. The AUM placed on the Boards persons who neither had the experiential or educational qualifications to deal with the matters of the institutions they were required to direct.
4. For the past four years the AUM totally ignored the need for knowledge and training in corporate governance for the members it placed on the various boards.
5. Millions of dollars are now being controlled by members of the Boards of Social Security, the Health Authority, the Tourist Board and the Development Board by AUM appointees who have never, and likely will never, direct even the tiniest business enterprise on Anguilla.
6. Early in its term of administration the AUM-appointed Board hired a “Consultant” to perform what could be regarded as an investigation of the ASSB which amounted to nothing more than a very personal attack on the CEO. The report alleged a number of serious questionable actions on the CEO’s part. A significant portion of the investigative report on the ASSB was read by the Chief Minister in the shelter of the House of Assembly.
ANGLEC is a corporation established by the GOA which was originally solely owned by the GOA. The GOA subsequently sold shares in ANGLEC to the public. The GOA maintained a majority of the shares and one of its statutory boards which it controls, the Anguilla Social Security Board (ASSB) purchased a sizeable chunk of the shares. The purchase of the shares by the ASSB was not set aside as a requirement of the share allotment arrangements. The ASSB simply had the wherewithal to make the size purchases it desired, and did so.
An overbearing Government of Anguilla (MOF) with no consideration for the public who bought shares in ANGLEC could therefore still control ANGLEC which is exactly what this Chief Minister and AUM Government have chosen to do through its Chairmen and appointees.
In regional terms ANGLEC which has assets of well over EC$100 million is a major corporation. The decision of the AUM administration to make the first criteria for being on that Board “your support for the AUM” has to my mind resulted in the following:
1. The disconnection of hundreds of residents from the ANGLEC grid.
2. The spiraling cost of electricity which is quite the opposite of what Minister Evan Gumbs promised would occur during his 2010 election campaign.
3. The Board’s hasty removal of very competent top members of management who appear to have legally sound claims totaling millions of dollars for wrongful dismissal against the Company. These claims will have to be settled by ANGLEC from Shareholder monies.
4. The failure to put in place a policy on renewable energy.
5. The failure to ensure the enactment of legislation to give direction to the introduction of the use of renewable energy on Anguilla.
Now that the AUM has had four years with its minions on the various Boards, and the negative reports about the manner in which they have operated are all over the street, the Chief Minister is now pursuing greater control by the various ministries of the Statutory Boards which report to them. He has even hinted of returning ANGLEC to Government ownership a position which most other regional countries is moving away from.
Apparently the plan is to bring the management of the institutions into the civil service. This is the same civil service which the Chief Minister has constantly disrespected and which he will never under our current constitution ever have direct control over. It seems that what he will be doing as usual is ensuring that the blame for any negative situations not rest with his Government but the “Civil Service”.
It was most interesting to hear the AUM candidate for District #1, Dr. Lorenzo Webster, clearly state to DJ Hammer on Klass FM that health should be brought under the control of the civil service. He has apparently been well indoctrinated in the AUM’s positions.
But what about the future? If the next Government of Anguilla is the AUM we can expect more of the same. If, fortunately, there is a change, my advice to the new Government regarding the selection of Board members would be to select Board members through an open and rigorous process along the following lines:
1. Ensure that at least two persons on each Board have life and experiential skills important to the needs of the particular Board and that they are capable of critical thinking and analysis.
2. Ensure that at least one third of the members of each Board are persons under thirty years old, with at least a college degree, who have shown leadership skills through their involvement in the leadership of clubs and associations.
3. Ensure that at least two qualified members of the existing Board remain in order to ensure continuity.
4. Ensure that the Director/CEO/Manager of the institution is a voting member of the Board.
5. Ensure that the Chairman of the Board has strong leadership skills and has had previous Corporate Governance training.
6. Ensure that selectees are all submitted to character, credit and criminal background checks.
At the end of the day one expects that the Minister, to whom a Statutory Board reports, would want to have the confidence, in and the ear of, the Chairman- and equally, the Chairman should have the ear of the Minister. Things would move smoothly at the Board level if strategies and positions for the future were arrived at through interactions between the Minister and the Board. If the suggestions noted above were part of the norm I am sure we would have less negativity on matters and workings of the Boards spoken about in homes, on the street corners, in rum-shops and splattered all over this newspaper and the Internet.
The embarrassing story of the appointments and actions of Statutory Boards, and the ANGLEC Board appointed by the AUM, is a history lesson which should be part of an introductory presentation to all future new Ministers responsible for Boards and the new members of all GOA appointed boards.
[Name Withheld by Writers request]
