Sometimes some slow changes are hard to see, but an unexpected guest seated at every meal is hard to miss! The last four administrations have gradually taken the tab for our government from $5 to $20 Million every month – just for operations! Assuming we still have some 5,000 kitchen tables in Anguilla, that means they’re sliding about $4,000 EC every month under each of those tables, with most taxes devoured unseen at the port – and now, a full spread of GST on top! And…That’s not counting all that debt they forced us to swallow by failing to curb their appetites and borrowing too many cups of sugar.
A Buffet – without a Patio, Tables or Chairs!
Nothing to see here. There is less than 1% in that budget for road maintenance, and not a penny for totally new roads, new offices, schools or terminals. Not even a pillar of salt. Those are in a separate Capital Budget.
That $20 Million per month for the Recurrent Budget, however, includes at least $109 Million per year for salaries, wages, pensions, and other emoluments – that is, direct payments to civil servants! There is a very small amount for back pay that you might think was half the budget, if you listen to some accounts. It is a few crumbs.
We also pay nearly $4 Million a year for general and House “allowances”! They allow people to have lunch brought in, office meetings and drive government cars, as a couple of examples. But there are separate budgets for “Hosting and Entertainment” and one for “Sundry Expenses” – in addition to Allowances! And, we pay for civil servant local and international travel, meals and incidentals, House of Assembly expenses – and subscriptions, periodicals and books, supplies and materials that they eat up in those 39 departments, and for “Operating Cost” in general! In addition, we specifically fork out about a million for civil servant phone and Internet megabytes, and nearly $5 Million a year for their electricity – before recent increases!
Outsourcing Government: One Grill, Lots of Chefs!
There’s nearly another $8 Million per year for insurance, while many governments notably self-insure in other countries. There’s about the same for Rental of Assets and for Heavy Equipment, and over $6 Million a year for Consultants! As if 1,315 civil servants aren’t qualified to get a job well-done with nearly $5 Million in the Training budget – and that’s before statutory bodies add icing to that cake! Gobbling up some $4 Million per month, statutory bodies, like the Health Authority, Board of High School Governors and the Tourist Board – add gravy on top of the expenses for the Ministries of Education, Health and Tourism, among many other boards and subventions. But, when we get BOTH a statutory body AND a Ministry, it’s like paying for 2 pizzas and getting 1 empty box! Having take-out government bodies gives us duplicate executives, duplicate Finance, Human Resources, Facilities, and Purchasing for the same services! Wow.
Smaller Bites for Youth and Culture – and Cuts to Public Assistance!
Smaller budgets include Sports, Youth and Cultural development, as well as Gender Affairs and Advertising! ’Guess they need lots of hiring ads to keep stuffing that bloated government with all those young people. How else can we keep 39 departments largely filled with folks cooking up ways to collect fees and taxes while making it harder for everyone else to eat? Of course, education, police, waste management, prison, public assistance and medical treatment are essentials – but they took nearly $7 Million off the plate from Public Assistance just this year!
Good Governance Left the Table!
As past administrations failed to properly feed a healthy government while building up financial strength, our Governors signed off on one sour plan after another, year after year. How? A Budget is a formal Appropriations Act and requires House of Assembly votes from our Ministers – AND sign-off by our Governors. They only brought unseasoned technocrats to starve us with taxes after fattening us up for more debt, pushing people into poverty, risking higher crime and chronic disease rates, and nauseating tourists, investors, and school leavers as soon as the rotten smell of GST wafted their way.
So, now we are all feeding civil servants at every meal, instead of being served by a world-class, re-engineered Public Service that is fit-for-purpose. They could have sent efficiency experts to right-size the government with recipes for gradual restructuring without burning the place down. Instead, they cordially poured the wine for Ministers sliding off their chairs into debt and then happily humiliated them with GST – instead of fostering practical pathways to temperance, like tax and hiring freezes, salubrious scheduling, and early retirements.
No, they left the table without ensuring that every department and position palatably served the public, while distilling fewer, more meaningful jobs for civil servants – and educating our People for a fit private sector. They allowed the very public service that reports to them to grow obese and unhealthy even for those who serve, as well as the rest of us who must feed them. Just the service charge on those loans from years of financial feasting is over $1 Million per month! And…Politicians must cure their cravings for construction, contracts and cherries on top, instead of preparing meals within our means and saving a serving from every season of plenty for reserves.
1,315 Uninvited Guests Need to Share Solutions, Not Our Supper!
GST has sickened everyone who has tasted it, and we are feeding uninvited guests at our tables with every fourth bite of our food budgets being consumed by taxes. While a few civil servants have been uncivil while shoving GST down people’s throats, most are surely suffering from empty stomachs and pantries after also losing 13% of their purchasing power – and from a spoonful of shame for taking bread from others’ tables.
By adopting alternative taxes, by perhaps working leaner on fewer days, and by steadily streamlining and dieting over time, we can all bring a healthy dish for sustainable solutions to restore Anguilla to being proud, strong and free – as she once was so sleek, before GST.
Repeal GST. Now.
This article reflects cultural and economic issues raised on July 5, 2021, by Ms. Melinda Goddard, Principal of ClienTell Consulting, to the House of Assembly Select Committee on (GST) Goods and Services Tax Public Hearing. References: Budget Address (2022); Integrated Customs Tariff (Amendment) Regulations (2019).
