COVID-19 has required the Government of Anguilla (GoA) to increase its expenditure in the face of drastically reduced revenues.
The GoA has, since the second quarter of this year, been paying out up to EC$800.00 and later EC$1000.00 to persons unemployed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. These are persons who would not have been eligible for the COVID-19 related Unemployment Assistance Programme funded by the Social Security Board. It is also understood that the more recent payments from the Social Security Fund are to be repaid by the Government of Anguilla. The burden assumed by the GoA in relation to COVID-19 unemployment payments has therefore increased.
Employees of the Government and Government agencies have retained their employment status and continue to receive their full salaries. It appears that the additional 5% salary cut for elected officials, spoken of by the new APM administration, has not yet been effected. There has also been no obvious reduction in the services offered by the GoA and Government agencies.
COVID-19 has required the GoA to take additional measures, including increasing security personnel and patrols, to secure our borders and prevent illegal entry to Anguilla. This and other measures have been employed in a bid to ensure Anguilla retains its COVID Free status.
With the closure of Anguilla’s ports, the GoA’s usual revenue measures have not been performing at the level necessary to meet GoA’s or our Government Agencies’ expenditure levels. The United Kingdom Government (UKG) has, thankfully, come to Anguilla’s rescue and is providing the GoA with budgetary support. Our reliance on UKG’s financial support, however, ought not to be Anguilla’s substantive response to the dilemma we currently face as a result of COVID-19, and its impact on our primary industry – tourism.
We have faced challenge after challenge in the past few decades. We were affected by the global financial crisis, our banking crisis, Hurricane Irma and now COVID-19. With each challenge we were required to place significant reliance on the UKG to assist us in responding to our dilemmas. Whether it is that the GoA needs approval to pursue its preferred course of action, or actual UKG funds, Anguilla has been heavily reliant on UKG’s response to its difficulties in the past few decades.
What will it take for Anguilla to find itself in a position of greater self-reliance? Are we prepared to engage in a national discussion on this matter; to carefully consider issues raised; to determine our preferred course and then to act diligently to chart that course? Are we willing to define what ‘Anguilla first’ or ‘Anguillians first’ is intended to mean? Will we carefully examine the possibility that how we seek to deliver on the mantra ‘Anguilla first’ or ‘Anguillians first’ might very well hinder the development of opportunities for Anguillians to grow both personally and financially?
The UKG is facing its own challenges. To put it squarely, currently, by receiving UKG budgetary support, Anguilla is benefitting from a purse to which residents of Anguilla did not contribute. For how long will this existence continue where requests for assistance must be made and hope held out that the answer will be favourable? This is an unacceptable way for any country to be managed, and it is hoped that we will quickly move to actively considering, and answering, the difficult questions. Once we have found answers, we must act with a view to gradually removing the need to place reliance on the mercies of the UKG.
Chief among the difficult questions we must answer are – (1) What is an acceptable population base to facilitate the growth of a sustainable economy for Anguilla, and (2) How do we achieve that population base?
Are we content to go to the UKG, cap in hand, every time we encounter a significant challenge? My hope is that others in Anguilla are as highly uncomfortable with our current situation, as I am, and are therefore willing to face and answer the difficult questions, which must be answered, and acted upon, if we are to begin to shoulder our own burdens.
Let us do what we must to truly make ourselves proud, strong and free.
