Following the presentation of the Anguilla Government’s 2020 budget in the House of Assembly on April 15, a supplementary budget, in quick succession, was presented and passed on May 7, substantially reallocating the various sums within the original figure.
“We thought it was important to have a budget in place before the next election, which would have been constitutionally due by July 11, 2020, Premier and Minister of Finance, Mr. Victor Banks, told the House on May 7. “Before bringing the Appropriations Bill to the House for that budget, Mr. Speaker, we sent a copy to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office…to make sure we have approval before we brought it to this Honourable House.”
He continued: “During that period, the issues related to the spread of the covid-19 pandemic became real and, like the rest of the world, the Government of Anguilla began to focus its attention on trying to contain the spread of the pandemic in our island. It was not an issue in the UK at the time and it was hardly an issue in the United States at the time.
“It was hardly an issue in Anguilla, but our Ministry of Health had paid attention to the recommendations of the World Health Organisation and PAHO. Measures had begun to be put in place not necessarily for this pandemic, but for all incidents of the virus that could impact our island and indeed our region. The Ministry had begun things like putting in place an isolation unit; certain regulations to make sure that the public health agency was able to function – and we closed schools on March 14. And, by the weekend, we went into the full-fledged closing of our borders. During that period, our concerns about how this would impact the budget were not as serious as it was turning out to be.”
Mr. Banks said that Baroness Elizabeth Sugg, the new Minister for the Overseas Territories, told the Anguilla Government on March 20 that the FCO had approved the budget – although it was recognised that there might be some issues with the pandemic thereby preventing the Government from meeting all of its budgetary targets. “She promised that she would give the Government her support with whatever we needed should there be shortfalls in our budget,” he stated.
The erstwhile Premier continued: “Mr. Speaker, we passed the budget in this Honourable House with the clear understanding that there would be challenges, and we proceeded to dialogue with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The Ministry of Finance estimated that we had a revenue budget of 253 million dollars…and we estimated that because of the close down, the impact on tourism and other sectors, that we could have a shortfall in revenue, by December 31st, of some 100 million dollars. In other words, Mr. Speaker, we would need to find ways and means to meet that budgetary shortfall.
“The British Government and Baroness Sugg agreed to give us support. On Friday, May 1st, I received a letter from Ben Merrick the Director of the Overseas Territories. It outlined the conditions for the receipt of that support and assistance; the commitments that the UK was prepared to make; and what was required of us going forward. [These included] ensuring that we were responsible and transparent in presenting ourselves and committing to the various obligations in financial management; good governance and ensuring that they [the FCO] got the information about statutory bodies; shortfalls in revenue; the support we give; and also what hard decisions we were prepared to make.
“Mr. Speaker, the British Government pledged that the 241 million dollars in expenditure that we estimated would be guaranteed. In other words, any shortfalls in revenue would be guaranteed. This is an assurance which no other Overseas Territory in this region received outside of Montserrat. The discussions are that [the assistance] can represent somewhere up to 120 million EC dollars. This is British taxpayers’ money that the British Government, Baroness Sugg and her colleagues are prepared to support the Government of Anguilla with.”
In his address to the House, Mr. Banks further said: “They want us to take into account a number of conditions – and one of the key conditions that we must put in place is to present a Supplementary Appropriation Budget. This bears in mind the amount of expenditure which will be guaranteed, and our responding to the various issues that we are prepared to do to meet that budget. The budget remains the same for expenditure, but we are now being required to reallocate and find ways and means to meet those reallocations.
“The Ministry of Finance, the Governor’s Office, Executive Council members, and my colleagues, all got together and an estimate of 40 million dollars is being considered to be moved around within the 141 million dollars to meet the requirements of this period in which the British Government will top up, on a monthly basis, to support the Government of Anguilla.
“We told them that we were going to grant temporary Government support of 800 dollars a month, to the 31st of December, for persons who were not qualified under the Social Security Income Support Scheme. That scheme will be for a period of six months and if the situation continued beyond the six months, the Government of Anguilla will then take on that responsibility for an additional three months that is being anticipated at 800 dollars a month.
“There have been substantial reallocations within the 241 million dollars to such critical sources as the Anguilla Air and Sea Ports Authority which has estimated a loss of revenue of 800 thousand dollars a month and for which the Government is to find 8.8 million for the next nine months; 500 thousand for the Anguilla Development Board to assist small businesses in addition to 500 thousand dollars from another agency; 3.6 million dollars for the Anguilla Health Authority; 4.3 million dollars for the Anguilla Water Corporation; and 20.4 million dollars for the Government’s Assistance Scheme for temporary benefits.”
While several of the reallocations have been substantially increased, as seen above, the majority have been appropriately adjusted downward across all Government Ministries and Departments as well as statutory bodies receiving subventions. The various sums of money switched around account for the 40 million dollars reallocated within the 2020 budget.
