On Monday January 11th, the Government of Anguilla held its first press briefing for 2021. Several topics of national interest were addressed including the Budget, Tourism, Health, Water, and the Air and Sea Ports Authority.
The Hon. Premier, Dr. Ellis Webster, opened the meeting with a cordial New Year’s greeting. He then summoned the Hon. Minister of Economic Development, Mr. Kyle Hodge, to pray God’s blessings on the proceedings. Thereafter, the Premier spoke about Government’s performance during its first seven months in office, and gave an overview of points of interest with regard to the 2021 budgets of the statutory bodies, as well as assent to the Government’s overall budget for this year.
“Today we are starting our weekly press conferences so that we can meet with members of the press and discuss the burning issues that concern us as a people,” he purported. “We started out this journey on June 30th following our election to office. We count it a serious responsibility to carry out the mandate of the people, and we do feel that we are the right team, at this time, to take Anguilla to a place of sustainable economic progress.”
The Premier went on: “On July 9th 2020, I sent out a press statement commenting on the dire fiscal position that we met when we came into office. I mentioned to the Governor, then, that looking at the fiscal position, as it was presented, that we have been skimming the water — and most of the time we have been under water during some years before. If we had continued on that path we would not have been able to survive until now. We had until July 10th to accept the terms of the memorandum of understanding that was signed on June 11th (by the previous administration) for COVID-19 financial aid. We had to accept this MOU, or suffer the consequences. ”
He went on to describe the town hall meeting at the Rodney McArthur Rey Auditorium, on September 15th 2020 saying: “At that meeting we presented the state of affairs of the statutory bodies, explaining how they contributed to the financial position that had existed. For good fiscal prudence, we had to set out to change the way things were being done with regard to these statutory bodies.”
The Premier noted that one of the essential requirements was that the statutory bodies’ budgets had to be balanced. “Besides, the statutory bodies had to show how they were to deal with any arrears, risks of contingent liabilities for the Government, and increases in their respective debt levels,” he explained.
He said that it was necessary to place stringent controls on all these factors before there could be assent to the Medium Term Economic and Fiscal Plan of the MOU. “This Fiscal Plan was due by August 31st,” the Premier reflected, “but we were able to get an extension on it until September 30th, and we had it submitted to the UK on October 14th. This Medium Term Economic and Fiscal Plan played a great part in determining how our overall budget for 2021 would be assented to.”
The Premier continued by noting the submissions of the various statutory budgets: “It was not until December 28th that we were able to get confirmation on the acceptance of the Health Authority of Anguilla Budget. It was January 7th that we got the Water Corporation of Anguilla Budget cleared. And on January 8th we got the budget from the Air and Sea Ports Authority. It was on that same date, January 8th, after we had gotten assurance that the budgets of the statutory bodies were acceptable, that the Government of Anguilla’s 2021 Budget was assented to.”
He recounted: “We ca
me to office with many plans, expecting that we would ensure the wellbeing of the people of Anguilla, and that is where we still stand today. And every decision that we make is for the betterment of living conditions in Anguilla. Sometimes this may require tough decisions that are hard to take. We don’t take these decisions lightly, but we take them understanding the impact that such decisions will have on our people, knowing that in the long run we intend to see this country do well.”
– Staff Reporter, James R. Harrigan
