We in Anguilla have even weaker institutions meant to ensure good governance than the Virgin Islands have. So, we are in no position to preach. However, Virgin Islanders may find it useful to read what constitutional improvements have been suggested to discourage corruption and misgovernment in Anguilla. Several governments have accepted these recommendations. But Hurricane Irma in 2017, and Covid-19 subsequently, have stalled the reform process.
Political Independence from the UK: This must be our ultimate objective if we are to have any national identity and self-respect. Yet, immediate independence does not find favour with any significant number of Anguillians. The likely explanation is that over the past 40 years of internal self-government, successive Anguillian governments have had difficulty in living up to acceptable standards of good governance. They need to prove to us their adherence to rules of accountability, transparency, and integrity before we will risk our lives and property in their unsupervised, independent hands. It would be foolhardy of us to make the mistake so many of our Caribbean brothers and sisters did and go into independence unprepared. Some of the issues you may want to consider include the ones below.
Institutions Protecting Good Governance: The Virgin Islands already have some of these, eg, a constitutionally protected, independent Auditor General, Complaints Commissioner, DPP, Human Rights Commission, Integrity Commission, Supervisor of Elections, and Judicial and Legal Services Commission. We in Anguilla need to be protected by additional, legally binding rules and institutions that guarantee good governance. Once we can be satisfied on this score, we are sure to look for further political advancement.
Electoral District Boundary Commission: Regular revision (say every ten years when the Census is taken) of the electoral boundaries must be done to achieve equal representation in the Assembly. Such a Commission must be protected in the Constitution from political manipulation.
Voters’ Lists: These must be cleaned up at regular intervals to remove deceased or no longer resident voters if disputes and suspicion are to be minimised. This should be done also after every census is taken.
Public Service Commission: The Governor’s constitutional role in keeping political parties out of the public service is beneficial. But, in Anguilla, he or she has unlimited power over members of the public service. This is undemocratic and paternalistic. It does not permit us to develop local responsibility for our own governance. An independent PSC should be constitutionally protected and authorised to appoint and discipline all public servants, including police officers, nurses, and teachers.
National Security Commission: Such a Commission should not be optional, as at present, but should be constitutionally protected and empowered to advise the Governor on all matters of internal and external security. Internal security especially is our business.
Financial Services Commission: The FSC exists at present under a mere statute. The Constitution should give it constitutional protection and give its members security of tenure.
Appointments Commission: Ministers should not be allowed to appoint cronies to government boards and committees. Such appointments should be overseen by an independent, constitutionally protected panel.
Integrity Commission: This organ is intended to promote integrity, honesty, and good faith in public life. Among other things, it will publish and enforce a Code of Conduct for Persons in Public Life. It will make and publish an annual Report to the Assembly so that no default by a public officer is kept secret.
Registration of interests: Parliamentarians and senior officers must make an annual declaration of their and their families’ assets and liabilities. Such declarations must be public. Failure to file must result in penalties. Concealment should result in severe punishment. This applies to all members of the House of Assembly and to the holders of such other offices as may be prescribed by law. It is expected that this provision will be extended to all Permanent Secretaries, Heads of Departments, and members of public boards, committees, and commissions, of whom accountability, transparency and integrity are demanded. The sanction for Members of the Assembly should be loss of their seats. In all cases other penalties such as fines and imprisonment should be available.
Complaints Commissioner: Without an ombudsman-type officer available to every resident without charge, it is often futile and expensive to make a complaint against an oppressive or misbehaving member of the administration. The role of such an officer is recognised throughout the region as essential for minimising the loss of public confidence in and increasing dissatisfaction with the performance of the public service.
Police Complaints Commissioner: At present, complaints against abusive police officers go either to the Governor or to the Commissioner of Police. This internal process is secretive, unsatisfactory, and inappropriate. A corrective function can be more openly and acceptably performed by an independent officer.
Public Procurement Commissioner: Despite the existing statutory provisions, public procurement remains subject to much abuse. A constitutionally protected administrative procedure for relief, at least as a first step, is preferable to leaving it to the expensive and dilatory court system.
Public Assets: Any dealing in Crown land, mineral, or fishing rights, and other valuable public assets must require approval by the Assembly.
Public Finance: As a further guarantee of good governance, it is generally accepted among Anguillians that our public finances need to be better regulated. The rules for handling public finances must be more stringently enforced than they have been in previous years. The present rules are mainly set out in statutes. There is no provision for enforcing these rules. Their deliberate ignoring by the public service over past decades has caused the Chief Auditor to be critical of Anguilla’s public accounts. We have, it appears, never in our history received a clean audit report. We can better protect our public finances by adopting in our Constitutions most of the stringent provisions the British have been demanding. We have been proposing that we should introduce them into any new Constitution rather than wait for them to be imposed on us.
Neither rules nor watchdog institutions will by themselves guarantee that integrity, accountability, and transparency will descend like a warm blanket on our public life. But their absence from our Constitution, the highest legal instrument and supreme statement of our expected norms and mores of public life, makes it easier for those who with impunity use public office to enrich themselves and their friends to the cost of the public purse is no longer acceptable. We must set out in a clear and binding statement the parameters of the behaviour we expect of those we place in office to rule over us. And, when those rules are broken, we must be certain that we are able to take corrective action, protected by the Constitution against victimisation. We would encourage the Virgin Islands to join us in this constitutional reform effort if they can expect to see any improvement in standards of public life. Without these constitutional reforms, direct rule by the British government will be no help at all. With these reforms, direct rule will be unnecessary and pointless.
