On Thursday, March 1st, the Anguilla Community College (ACC) hosted a workshop on the concepts good governance for our society as another contribution to the Anguillian community. Participants in the workshop included members and directors of public company boards, as well as the boards of statutory bodies.
Facilitators for the workshop were Dr. Karl Dawson, President of the ACC; Mr. Quincy Harrigan, the College’s Dean, as well as Dr. Haldane Davies of the University of the Virgin Islands which is playing a supportive role to the ACC in its effort to implement good governance policies here. Together, all three facilitators sought to present lectures with an aim to ensure effective public board performance in Anguilla through exposing board members to sound principles of board operations.
In addition, the workshop provided the opportunity for those participating to learn from each other and to resolve in putting into practice the best principles and ethics that would characterize good governance in Anguilla. It was hoped that the workshop would develop a network of individuals who would ensure sound governance of public boards through collective reflection and constant training.
With reference to local boards and their responsibilities, Dr. Dawson emphasized: “Government is extending. Government is not like it used to be. It is becoming more democratic because more persons are involved. And since more persons are involved in helping to manage government’s resources, then they are to be properly trained, and this is the purpose of this workshop.”
Dr. Dawson went on: “Governments are increasingly being pervasive in public life. Many years ago we would not have had statutory bodies in Anguilla. One of the earlier boards would have been the Social Security Board, but a number of boards have come on stream well after that. This goes to show the way that government is expanding and allowing more and more citizens to take part in the governance process via boards. This is something that is still fairly new.
“Hence we are still trying to navigate our way around in an effort to discover what it means when people are delegated to a board. Then we need to know the role of the Minister if he or she has delegated some of his or her responsibilities to a board. We need to know how far should the Minister go in directing. We need to know where the boundary is between the Minister and the board and where the boundary is between the board and the administration.”
The foregoing were some of the kind of issues pertinent to good governance that the workshop was designed to address.
