THE CHIEF MINISTER’S ADVISOR PONTIFICATES ON “CONFLICT OF INTEREST” MATTER
Dear Mr. Editor:
I have a very low regard for the members of the AUM who sit in our Parliament and here, among other things, is why:
• None of them have completed any form of tertiary level training.
• With the exception of the departing Chief Minister, who captained a boat and had a ship’s agency business, none of them have any management experience (despite the PS’s claim that he has. I have heard it emphatically disputed by current and former management personnel at Cap Juluca).
• They all have large egos and act and behave as though they know it all (a prominent trait of many people who are developmentally challenged).
The people of Anguilla must demand from anyone who seeks political office: very high levels of experience, leadership abilities, training, education, integrity and a healthy dose of humility. None of our children should have the perception that their political leaders are lacking in any of the six areas above. Sadly, though, when you test the current AUM members of Parliament against those areas the results are very unflattering.
Now to my main topic – and what scares me about the possible reelection of the AUM to govern this country. The AUM is attempting to add to its already weak parliamentary members a gentleman who is currently Advisor to the Chief Minister. In the recent debate between the persons seeking election as the District 5 representative, the matter of the AUM candidate’s position on the Procurement Board was raised in the context of the Governor’s concern that his membership of the Board could have, as the Honorable Edison Baird described it, “ a deleterious impact” on decisions of the Board.
For anyone with a reasonable level of intelligence, and not necessarily even minimal training in Corporate Governance, the Advisor’s response was hysterical. It came from someone who is advising the most powerful person in the land. Unfortunately, he appears to operate in a different world from the leaders of corporate businesses (i.e. CEOs, CFOs, General Managers and Directors etc.) with whom the Chief Minister is expected to interact regularly on Anguilla and overseas.
On a daily basis the leaders of corporate businesses have to deal with the jargon and issues related to:
• Conflicts of interest.
• Related party transactions.
• Associated party transactions.
• Possible insider trading.
• Tendering processes.
• Requests for proposals.
• Terms of Reference.
One would have thought that the sole person selected and announced as Advisor to the Chief Minister, having accepted that role, would ensure that he is aware of, and comfortable in addressing, such issues and would not find himself in a public forum embarrassing the Office of the Chief Minister of Anguilla with an insipid response to the serious Corporate Governance issue of “Conflict of Interest”. His defense seemed particularly stupid to an ear with some understanding of Corporate Governance given that the ALHCS debaters, and other young students who would all have been seeking knowledge, were waiting a proper and reasoned response from “The Advisor” to the Chief Minister.
Here therefore, gleaned from the Advisor’s response for insertion in the next edition of the AUM Handbook on “Corporate Governance” – in the section on Conflict of Interest – is a list of acceptable reasons which may be used when you are on a Board and you are challenged with a claim of “Conflict of Interest”:
“You are not the Chairman”
“Each member has an equal opportunity to express him/herself”
“There are six (6) other members”
“You can recuse yourself from any matter”
“People are placed on Boards to counteract bias”
“You are only involved in the preliminary stages of the procurement process”
“The Board only approves based on recommendations”
“You are not on the Board in secret”
“Your membership on the Board is transparent as everybody knows”
After the years of snafus and errors of commission and omission, which occurred regularly at the various Boards which the AUM appointed including the Anguilla Social Security Board, the Anguilla Development Board, ANGLEC, the Health Authority, the Water Corporation and the Anguilla Air and Seaport Authority, one now realizes that with this man as the Chief Minister’s Advisor we are very lucky, and must be thankful, to have not seen even more “wrongful dismissal charges, inappropriate use of funds, leaking of confidential information and other bad stuff” coming out of the Boards.
My concern is that if, unfortunately, the AUM controls Anguilla after the next election the “Boys” them, including this unfit Advisor, if elected will ( just like they don’t now) not have anyone to prevent them from creating even more trouble for our Statutory Bodies, Authorities and Corporations and, by extension, the people of Anguilla.
As a footnote, I have been waiting with bated breadth for the brightest, most educated, most experienced, most influential, most insulting, most arrogant – and the candidate with the highest integrity who postulated on what he regarded as “Conflict of Interest” – to call out the Advisor on his response but he has not. It therefore seems to me that one of his criteria for determining a “conflict of interest” is whether he ”finds favor with” or is “supportive of” the perceived conflicted person. Some months ago he, of course, did not hesitate to attack his favorite target Victor Banks charging him with a conflict of interest (while MOF) by using some absurd criteria to make his judgment. Based on his criteria if, God forbid, he is able to win his district (highly improbable as it is), and he then becomes MOF, he will have to sell all his interests in those businesses he has tried to establish so long as they tender for services to the Government.
(Name Withheld by writer’s request)
