Chief Minister and Minister of Finance, Mr. Victor Banks, has given an update on the deferred salaries for public servants over a period of some six to seven years.
Speaking to media representatives on Monday evening, October 8, Mr. Banks said that since then the Government of Anguilla had repaid more than fifty percent of the amount owed. This was largely done through repayments as a result of sickness and medical claims made by a number of Government employees on behalf of themselves or their families.
The Chief Minister’s comments followed a recent meeting the Government had with representatives of the Anguilla Teachers’ Union who expressed concerns about their deferred salaries and the importance of the Government responding to them.
He explained that the Government’s support given to some public servants, by giving them their deferred salaries for medical purposes, as stated above, was one aspect of improving the pay back arrangements. The next aspect is for the Government, by the end of this year, to endeavour to make a further contribution of refunding, as much as possible, the remainder of the deferred salaries.
Chief Minister Banks was asked to comment on the deferred salaries owed to employees of the statutory-established Health Authority of Anguilla who are also seeking repayment.
“There are some concerns about the Health Authority in this programme because, whereas Government is responding to the needs of the public servants, the Health Authority is another matter,” he explained.
“It is a statutory body which operates in a different way. It has a subvention and through that subvention we have to make some provision for the Health Authority to respond to the requests coming from its staff. That has not yet been finalised and it is a sore point with the Minister of Health, as well as persons working with the Health Authority, but we are well on our way to sorting that out.”
