Mr Evans McNiel Rogers, Leader of the Opposition, in the House of Assembly, and a member of the Anguilla United Front, is strongly opposed to a proposed amendment to the Legislators Pension Act 2010 whereby legislators, with less than ten years of service, would be eligible for gratuity before attaining the age of 55 or 60 years.
Mr Rogers made known his opposition to the Government’s proposal at a public meeting of the Anguilla United Front at Blowing Point on Saturday night, January 10. His reaction followed an oral mention of the proposed amendment by Ministers at a meeting of Executive Council on January 2, and at a meeting, called by Chief Minister, Hubert Hughes, with members of his Cabinet and Opposition Members, on January 8.
Mr Rogers said that he and his colleague, Mr Othlyn Vanterpool, attended the meeting. He went on: “I got a number of calls from a number of individuals throughout this country saying you don’t need to go to any meeting with Hubert about legislators pension, [but] I made the decision that the responsible thing to do was to attend that meeting and find out exactly what the Chief Minister and his Government wanted to amend in the Legislators Pension Act.”
The Opposition Leader stated that among the elected persons who would benefit from the early gratuity, having served as Legislators for five years, would be Ministers Evan Gumbs and Jerome Roberts. He said he would be “a hypocrite” to support the proposal because the Anguilla United Movement Government had lambasted the former United Front Government about the 2010 gratuity and increase in salaries approved for Legislators then. He stated that the AUM Government was now using the same formula for the proposed gratuity for the two of its Ministers.
“At that meeting, I said Chief, you are going to have some serious problems with what you are going to be recommending,” Mr Rogers continued. “The first thing is the timing … and you are going to the House of Assembly to amend the Legislators Act to suit two of your Ministers in Government. If they were confident that they did such a wonderful job over the last five years, this would not be an issue. They would go to the polls and let the people elect them.”
The Opposition Leader stressed: “There is no way that I could go to the House of Assembly to amend this legislation at this particular point in time. Not Evans McNiel Rogers. There is no way that I am going to support this; and there is no way that we, as a party, will support this – Othlyn and I – in the House of Assembly.”
Rogers said that by February 26 the House of Assembly must be dissolved and “if the Chief Minister wants to go to the House of Assembly before that time, and make the amendment, he would have to get the assistance of the Member for Road North, or bring back the Member from West End because he won’t see Othlyn and I.”
The Opposition Leader added: “And if there is an issue with the quorum, let me tell the Speaker that this time, it would be pointed out to her – if she can’t calculate – it would be pointed out to her from the floor.”
