The speculation regarding the long delay of approval of Anguilla’s 2013 Budget – to finance the public services – finally ended on Monday this week, April 22, when Governor Alistair Harrison signified his asset to the 2012 Appropriation Act 2013.
Five copies of the document were signed by the Governor at his office in the presence of the media representatives. Neither the Chief Minister and Minister of Finance, Mr. Hubert Hughes, who was calling for the budget to be signed, nor any of his Ministers, were present.
“I have just got instructions from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office assenting to the 2012 Appropriation Act 2013 which sets out the expenditure measures in the budget,” he told reporters afterwards. “I am glad that it was possible to assent to it before the end of April which means that the Provisional Warrant that the Chief Minister, as Finance Minister, issued at the beginning of the year didn’t have to be renewed.
“I am very grateful to everybody who worked on this Bill – the Chief Minister and all of his team in the Ministry led by Aidan Harrigan, and all those who worked on it also in London at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and at the Department for International Development. The Bill is now assented to and will now become law.”
The Governor was asked whether there were any changes to the budget as submitted by the Minister of Finance. “There were a couple of changes – most important was the establishment of a Capital Development Fund under which the United Kingdom will make a contribution to Anguilla’s capital expenditure of approximately twelve million EC dollars this year. This will solve the problem that was identified – that capital expenditure was going to be partly-funded by running down the reserves. The amount of borrowing required has also been adjusted. That was a helpful move, and there have been further discussions between the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Finance about the cash flow projections and some technical issues.”
The Governor said that with the prior signing of the Framework for Fiscal Sustainability and Development, by the Chief Minister and the Minister for the Overseas Territories, the next stage would be the introduction of the required legislation.
“The Chief Minister has undertaken to do that by the end of June,” Governor Harrison stated. “I have made an offer of some technical assistance from the Governor’s Office to assist with the drafting to take the pressure off the Attorney General’s Chambers in particular. But, obviously, the Attorney General will have final responsibility for the draft – and it would have to be approved by Executive Council before it goes to the House of Assembly.
“I believe all is now set in train and will go ahead. I hope that the legislation will be passed in the agreed timescale.”
