As in the recent past, most of the space in the former National Bank of Anguilla building has continued to be taken over by the newly-elected Government to house a number of Ministries and Departments.
The arrangement was first embarked upon by the previous Government which has paid a high level of rent for the accommodation and was reportedly in the process of further negotiations. The present Administration has now decided to re-examine the rent arrangement and has stopped the payments until it becomes clear who the real owner or payee is.
This information was passed on to the public – at the Government’s town hall meeting on Tuesday, September 16 – by Premier Dr. Ellis Webster. He said that, on coming to office, he had undertaken to have his Ministerial Assistant, Mr. Courtney Morton, look into the renting and ownership of the NBA building.
According to him, it was found that NBA had created a company, called Anguilla Holding Assets Limited, in which the bank’s building was placed. The former Government of Anguilla eventually took over the building and had been paying a monthly rent of 127,000 dollars to the Receiver of the Bank, who was then paying that money into the company which, reportedly, has some connection with the Bank of Dominica.
Premier Webster stated that during the banking crisis, the former Government of Anguilla had bailed out NBA at a cost of 214 million dollars from a Social Security loan and, in addition, had paid 52 million dollars owed to a high end depositors’ trust in the bank. He added that his Government had decided to stop the rent payments, amounting to over one million dollars annually, until it was clear “who owes who” -rather than throwing money into a hole which the Government was uncertain about.
