As the situation stands today, the Government of Anguilla owes EC$27 million in salary deductions to public servants, and other officials, which were extracted by both the previous and present administrations to reduce public expenditure.
In one case, the former Chief Minister of the AUF Government took the position that the deducted money would be repaid when the economy improved significantly. In the other case, the AUM Government, which made a further deduction, did not make such commitment. In fact, the present Chief Minister, commenting on the promise of his predecessor, said it was unheard of anywhere of a government repaying money deducted from the salaries of its workers. In December 2011 the Executive Council authorised the Attorney General’s Chambers to seek legal advice from Lawyer Anthony Astaphan S.C. of Dominica on the implications of discontinuing the deffered payments or, in other words, to make the deductions permanent rather than temporary.
Mr.Astaphan, who was paid US$10,000, quickly turned in his report dated January 5, 2012, with various recommendations. But up to now the report has not been made public and no meeting is known to have been held with the public service unions at which it was presented. One of the points Mr Astaphan made was that he had “considerable difficulty with a permanent reduction of salaries”. He was of the view that “a more constitutionally viable approach would be to reduce salaries and other emoluments for a period of two to three years”. He noted that “in the context of the Anguilla Constitution no protection of salaries was afforded to any category of workers”. He pointed out that “while the Government was free to reduce salaries, it cannot do so arbitrarily”. Among other matters, he recommended the preparation of a comprehensive paper detailing “the island’s financial situation, deteriorating conditions and increasing deficit, public service costs to government; and the extent and duration of the reduction of the wage and other emoluments…” He also suggested “the drafting of a Public Service and Fiscal Reduction Bill for circulation to all public servants unions and officers for review, counter proposals, if any, and possible agreement”.
The only public reference in terms of doing something about the deductions of the salaries of the public servants was made earlier this week. The Chief Minister disclosed that the Executive Council met some “three weeks ago concerning the civil servants’ monies at which there were a lot of proposals”. In an obviously welcome statement, he said: “The one that I supported was that we assess the amount of money we owe the civil servants and pay them promptly – pay them immediately. Get money from somewhere and pay the civil servants, whether we borrow it from the Caribbean Development Bank (if the British Government would approve it), or from another bank, and pay the civil servants. This thing can’t drag on forever. We have to put a cut-off date and pay the civil servants their money. I understand that the amount of money we have to find right now is 27 million dollars.” It would mean that once that accumulated debt is paid, the Government workers and other officials would begin to receive their original salaries (before the back to back deductions).
The change of view by the Chief Minister, from his previous position that the repayment of the deductions was unheard of anywhere, is now both sympathetic and commendable as far as the financially-strapped civil servants (including teachers and others) are concerned. At this point – given the fact that the Government is broke, and there is a failing economy – even the acknowledgment of the owed debt and the willingness to repay it – provide comfort and hope. Certainly, the sourcing of the required money is another matter, but the promise of repayment must not be an empty one. There must be a genuine search for the money and an immediate disbursement if, and when, it becomes available.
At the risk of being the devil’s advocate there are, however, three observations to take into account. One is whether some form of repayment could not have been made to civil servants last year from what was considered to have been windfall money from Stamp Duty obtained from the auction sale of Viceroy. The second observation is that the Government could have decidedon a cut-off date for the salary deductions since the receipt of Astaphan’s legal opinion, at the beginning of the year, and even before then, to stop the build-up of the debt. The third observation is that rather than seeking to borrow money to repay the civil servants, Government should first try to force some of the potential investors holding MOUs to get their projects off the ground and pay the required licence and other fees.
Government must blame itself for the fact that the money owed to civil servants has now reached a whopping 27 million dollars and rising. In the midst of this unfortunate situation, Government also has a debt of gratitude to pay to civil servants for their silence in suffering and, perhaps, like sacrificial lambs, for understanding the dire financial situation inAnguilla. But this patience and good nature of its hard-working employees must not be taken for granted or unfairly exploited. Let us hope that the welcome promise made by the Chief Minister, this week, will find fulfilment in quick time.
