On Saturday July 4th 2020, in my thank you speech to the people of Anguilla for their support over the last five years of the Anguilla United Front Government, I used that occasion to also congratulate the new APM Government on its victory at the polls on June 29th, 2020, and to wish them all the best as they embark on their plans for Anguilla. I closed off those sentiments by adding: “If they succeed we all succeed.”
After exhorting my supporters to be proud of our party, I pointed out that: “the New APM Government needs to be given the time to prove that they can deliver on their promise of positive change, and our party must give them every opportunity to do so. We will not be frequenting the radio stations several times a week with angry criticisms just to undermine their efforts. On the contrary we intend to be a responsible Opposition at all times.”
Notwithstanding this pledge to allow the Government “a honeymoon period” as I characterized it — I indicated that there are a number of critical matters that I would be monitoring closely to ensure that they are handled in the best interest of the people of Anguilla. Among these matters was the MoU which I proudly signed on June 11th to ensure that the revenue shortfalls of EC$97 million, that we had estimated to be sustained as a result of the COVID 19 Pandemic, were financed. That MoU provided, with fair and equitable conditions, for up to EC$100 million in financial support up to December 31st 2020.
I signed that MoU with a number of provisos in a side letter, in the interest of timely implementation giving whichever Government coming into office after June 29th, the opportunity to terminate the agreement with one months notice if they felt it was not satisfactory.
I got acceptance from the British Government with a further proviso, which they included, namely, that an incoming Government would have to come to that decision by July 10, 2020.
Yesterday, July 9th 2020, Premier Lorenzo Webster agreed to that MoU after establishing a context which was based on a number of inaccurate premises, which based on my stated position that the APM Government’s response to this represents a proverbial “line in the sand” gives me no choice but to clarify as I respond.
In the context of statements, by members of the APM and their surrogates prior to the elections, that this MoU was tantamount to selling out Anguilla — I would like to commend Premier Webster for concluding that he would not be selling out Anguilla by recognizing this MoU and that while it is not a perfect document he can achieve reasonable adjustments if he engages his UKG partners in an atmosphere of mutual respect and understanding.
As he concluded, in his address, to do otherwise would be tantamount to hurtling Anguilla and its people into a state of serious insolvency. Hopefully, by admitting this, he would appreciate the urgency of having an agreement in place very early.
Obviously, given the hoopla around this MoU, during and after the election, the Premier found it necessary to create a narrative that justified his inevitable decision to accept this agreement. Unfortunately, in doing so, he either willfully or without the benefit of the facts made a number of totally inaccurate statements that implied that the past Government, and in particular the past Premier was less than forthright in negotiating these arrangements.
In fact, as Premier, I would expect that he would now acknowledge that what we negotiated as an urgent matter was to save Anguilla rather than to sell it out. And I hope that when he made the statement that the reverse could lead to a suspension of the Constitution because of contingent liabilities — he now realizes the importance of responsible leadership in Government as opposed to Government by referendum.
Unless the Premier was caught up in campaigning and other personal issues I believe that his opening remarks were totally disingenuous. As every other Anguillian he would have been aware that even before my budget address on April 15th 2020, Anguilla was facing serious challenges.
The only way that the situation could have been an eye-opener when he came to office would be if he was asleep. I would have indicated that the budget estimates which the Minister for the Overseas Territories, Baroness Sugg, agreed on March 19, 2020 would have acknowledged the potential impact of COVID 19 on the revenue estimates. In her letter she said: “This will be a difficult year for all of us, but I am aware of the particular challenges COVID 19 poses for Anguilla. I want to assure you that the UK Government and I, personally, intend to stand by you in these difficult times.” And stand by us she did — even though the UK had challenges of their own including the infection of their own Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Boris Johnson.
Furthermore, in the same budget address, entitled: “Building a Dynamic Economy” I included an entire section from page 29 to 33 on Government’s response to COVID-19 both in terms of its impact on the budget and our stimulus measures for the economy. Again this is a public document that was widely disseminated and I would expect at some point end up in the research files of an aspiring Premier.
None of the numbers have changed and indeed the Opposition claimed to have considerable access including leaks of relevant documents for their campaign. None of these documents were embargoed in any way and, as I have always said to my public service colleagues, my office is never locked because we have nothing to hide.
The Premier also went on to say that the Government neglected to consult with the electorate with the full knowledge that the financial position is dire. If there was ever a period in our administration that there was a ramp up in consultation — it was during the COVID-19 campaign.
Dealing with the very issue of the economy we scheduled seven stakeholder meetings. In the end, based on the crosscutting attendance, we were able to achieve an equitable level of outreach in five of these meetings. These meetings were streamed live on FaceBook; on radio; and on other social media platforms and were held over the period May 18th to May 22th, 2020.
An excellent video presentation from the Ministry of Finance was made at those consultations, clearly and graphically, outlining the impact of the COVID pandemic on the economy and government revenues. It was also made available to the interested public. I would be very much surprised if the Premier was not advised of these stakeholder meetings even during the heart of his campaign.
In his address, the Premier pointed to a number of conditions in the MoU – but nowhere in his presentation did he highlight any which were so drastic as to plunge our country into disaster.
As a matter of fact, in his concluding statements he touched on a number of the conditions which the UK Government were asking us to progress which makes it clear that there was nothing radically wrong with the assurances the MoU was seeking for good governance, and that the funds would be appropriately applied for the purpose for which they were intended.
And conspicuously missing in the response of the Government, and its surrogates, is any expressions of appreciation to British citizens who are also experiencing a period of great challenge that is planned to culminate in an increase in their taxes in 2021.
The Premier also showed a lack of understanding of the negotiation process by stating that a number of the reference conditions had not been met before signing off. The fact is that these conditions were suggested before a date for elections was made known — so as a consequence they were no longer possible.
He must also recognize that this did not prevent the signing of a mutually acceptable agreement – and should suggest to the Premier that there is no need for alarm during a negotiating process if parties operate in an atmosphere of mutual respect and understanding.
Let me therefore use this opportunity to offer him some unsolicited advice, namely, that the posturing during the campaign period should now come to an abrupt end — and for the good of Anguilla he needs to proceed to engage with the UKG based on the gains our Government has made over the past five years.
Finally, let me venture some more unsolicited advice to the Premier and his team — as I once gave to our team now in Opposition. The election is over. You are now the Government. You will find that a number of issues you raised on the outside are not as easily advanced as they would seem when you are on the inside.
It will not be helpful to spend the rest of your term involved in the blame game. You wanted to be the Government — you must act like you are the Government. You said you can fix it — so fix it without complaining who broke it. Whoever broke it — it still remains your job to fix it. The people don’t want to know who broke it — they want you to fix it.
So don’t be afraid to tell the people of their responsibility, as citizens, to pay their own way and pay their fair share of the tax burden. I notice in your closing remarks that you seem to be pandering to persons who refuse to pay their fair share of taxes.
The key word here is fair. No one should be expected to pay more than their fair share of taxes — neither should any Government or Government officials waste the people’s taxes.
I have also noted that your Government has agreed a reduction of 20% in their salaries. I expect this to mean an additional 5% to the 15% reduction that our legislators had put in place since May.
Now that you have agreed the MoU, there is no longer any need to require a reduction in public servants salaries and also as a result the reduction you propose to legislators salaries is commendable but purely cosmetic. Because I want to make the strong point that nowhere in the MoU that I signed — was this required.
In closing, I want to thank the staff in the Ministry of Finance for their support during my tenure. And I urge the Premier to take the time to acquaint himself with the process before he begins to advance the ideas of surrogates and advisers who have no experience in the matters he will face over the upcoming period of his tenure as Premier and Minister of Finance.
I thank you all very much for your kind attention.
