An Anguilla Government delegation, headed by Chief Minister and Minister of Finance, Mr. Victor Banks, and including Deputy Governor, Mr. Perin Bradley, and Dr. Aidan Harrigan, Permanent Secretary, Finance, will travel to London this weekend for financial, technical and public service meetings with British Government officials.
Among other matters, the talks will focus on Anguilla’s recovery from Hurricane Irma; the 60 million Pounds provided by the UK Government for infrastructural redevelopment; and the list of projects submitted by the Anguilla Government for funding.
From London, the delegation will travel to Brussels where Mr. Banks will sign a European Development Fund grant of 2.8 million Euros to Anguilla. That grant is not part of the normal EDF financial assistance to the island.
The foregoing, and other matters, were disclosed at a joint press conference held by Governor Tim Foy, OBE, and Chief Minister Banks in the Executive Council’s Chambers on Tuesday, February 13. In his introductory remarks, the Governor spoke about life generally returning to normal following months of reconstruction, and the positive signs that the tourist industry was picking up again.
He was pleased that the Chief Minister was paying an early visit to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. “He will be discussing the 60 million Pounds grant and the conditions for its release,” Governor Foy stated. “I think that the work on that is very well advanced, and is moving quite quickly. It is good that the Chief got an early opportunity to have a conversation around that matter.”
The Governor was happy that, apart from the 60 million Pounds, smaller sums of money were being made available for things like fixing the Rodney MacArthur Rey Auditorium so that students at the Comprehensive School can sit their examinations. “I think we can now turn a leaf on Irma, and begin to look forward to the positive things for the future because there are lots and lots to do,” he added.
Following on to what Governor Foy said, Chief Minister Banks stated: “We have turned the corner on the recovery effort and I think that the key issue is that we have secured some financing – not only the 60 million he referred to – but we are constantly picking at the CSSF [the UK Conflict Security and Stability Fund] and getting other benefits from it. I am very happy that the Governor’s Office … has been able to assist us in moving that forward for some critical projects. Having the Rodney MacArthur Rey Auditorium in preparedness for the examinations has been an area of great concern to me, as well as to having a plan in place to restore stability to the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School. Restoring the school is one of the most important issues that I consider we have to deal with from a social sector standpoint.
“The 60 million Pounds will finance a number of schools and will also deal with access to Anguilla at the terminal buildings both on this island and on the Dutch side of St. Maarten. We are focussing on access very comprehensively because we want to make sure that the visitor experience coming out of Juliana, which has its own challenges, can be mitigated. We have had some meetings with key hoteliers in the upper end of the tourism industry about other issues including the big issue of the Labour Code. In those discussions the hoteliers pointed out the importance of getting something done about access to Anguilla.”
The Chief Minister also spoke about the importance of getting a number of infrastructural projects in a state of managerial readiness for the release of the 60 million Pounds from the UK Government in April.
Mr. Banks continued: “As the Governor mentioned, I am going to the UK on Saturday. The delegation will include my Permanent Secretary, Dr. Aidan Harrigan, as well as the Deputy Governor who has been actively involved in the recovery process in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. I think it is important that we have a team which can respond to all the issues.
“The issues include the public service and the delivery of government services – and it is important that I have that resource [the Deputy Governor] with me. Dr. Harrigan will be dealing with the technical issues of funding and so forth, as well as the support we are expecting from the UK/EU Representative in London [Mrs. Blondel Cluff] whom we will be meeting on Monday, February 19. On Tuesday, we will be off to Brussels where we will be having the Overseas Countries & Territories Association Meeting which will be a very important meeting. One of the things we will be doing at that meeting is to sign off on an envelope of funds which is called ‘Envelop B’ [money outside the normal EDF financial assistance]. It is some 2.8 million Euros which will be available to us as well.”
The Chief Minister said the meeting in Brussels would also provide an opportunity for the Overseas Countries & Territories, as a group, to discuss Brexit issues. He was of the view that, on March 29, 2019, certain important things that are scheduled to happen in terms of Brexit, make it necessary to keep the dialogue alive until then.
“We intend, as often as we can, to have some input into those discussions in order to let the European Union authorities understand how we will be affected and what that relationship can be,” he went on. “The negotiators will negotiate what is in their best interest; but I also know that they are very, very conscious of the issues that affect the Overseas Territories and have included us in those discussions.”
Mr. Bradley, the Deputy Governor, who joined the press conference later on, spoke on such matters as disaster preparedness and the public service. Replying to questions, he denied that there were plans to cut the public service although it was necessary to keep it at a financially viable and manageable level. He said there were some 840 persons currently employed in the public service.
Responding to a question about the current shifting of responsibilities of Permanent Secretaries, the Deputy Governor promised to share the arrangement with the media, saying that information had already been distributed to the public service.
“It is not a rumour,” he explained. “There was a minor readjustment that was done recently. Given the impact of Hurricane Irma, and the post-recovery plan, I think it made sense to just look at the way the portfolios were distributed and to see if there were any adjustments we thought were necessary in order to make the whole recovery process much more efficient. It was done in that spirit. It was not as dramatic as it was before – hence the quiet way in which it was done this time.”
Mr. Bradley also commented on the Executive Council’s decision to fill 20 vacant posts, in the public service, involving salaries amounting to 1.5 million dollars.
“Since January 2017, we embarked on a very vigorous process in terms of filling positions,” he stated. “What you see there [in the minutes] is the consensus among the Permanent Secretaries, Public Administration and myself about the things that actually need to go forward. We still have 200 and something vacancies in the public service. But we have been really showing some very serious restraint in terms of controlling the growth of the public service.”
He said that the 20 vacancies were being advertised internally and only one position had the potential of increasing the public service. “It is actually going to save us money in some instances,” he added. “As people retire, the person that comes on is going to be starting at the lower end of the scale.”
