It was a hot issue in Anguilla as well as in Antigua from late last week when the Prime Minister of Dominica, Roosevelt Skerrit, said his Government had made loans to the two islands in the amounts of 12 million and 24 million dollars respectively. He was reported to have made the statement at a political rally in the run-up to the general election taking place there on Friday, this week. He was reportedly heard saying that he was able “to give’ the money due to his prudent management of Dominica’s finances.

L-R: Hon. Evans Rogers, Hon. Victor Banks and Dr. Wycliffe Fahie

In Anguilla there was a spate of denials from the Ministry of Finance. A press release issued by the Permanent Secretary stated: “Anguilla is part of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU). All the governments of the Currency Union are allocated a sum of money by the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) that is available for short-term credit if needed. These funds are made available from profits made by the ECCB and not from monies deposited by regional governments.”

The release went on to say that the statements by the Dominica Prime Minister did nor accurately reflect the facts and could be misleading. The release also stated that the Anguilla Chief Minister, Osbourne Fleming, had sought to address the issue by requesting the Governor of the Central Bank to ask Mr. Skerrit for a retraction. In addition, Mr. Banks issued a statement denying the loan of 12 million dollars from Dominica and explaining the role of the ECCB in the line of credit arrangement.

Hon. Hubert Hughes

Meanwhile, a statement from the Antigua and Barbuda Government also denied the loan from Dominica. It said that on April 1, 2009, the ECCB Monetary Council approved the necessary lines of credit. The result was that the Antigua and Barbuda Government had a loan due to the ECCB, and not to any government, in the amount of $89 million.

“The actual amount allocated by the Dominica Government under the arrangement is EC$5,736,” the Antigua and Barbuda Financial Secretary, Whitfield Harris, was quoted as saying. “Further, the allocation does not represent a direct transfer from the Dominica Treasury to either the Government of Antigua and Barbuda or to the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank. It is an allocation of a line of credit in keeping with Section 40 of the ECCB Agreement.”

In a hurriedly-called press conference on Tuesday this week, following his return from England, Anguilla’s Minister of Finance, Victor Banks, said he was grateful to his Permanent Secretary, Kathleen Rogers, for issuing a release on the matter in his absence. “I think she did an excellent job in dealing with the facts,” he said. He was of the view that Mr. Skerrit’s statement was made in the context of an election campaign although he felt it was an unfortunate matter for Dominica as well as other territories like Anguilla and Antigua.

“I spoke to the Governor of the Central Bank…and he said he had discussed the matter, but that of course the Ministers of Finance are his bosses,” Mr. Banks reported. [He said] “in this situation he cannot make a statement that would in any way affect that relationship until there is a meeting of the Monetary Council where he would be instructed to make a statement on the matter.”

Mr. Banks said he was unable to make contact with the Dominica Prime Minister on the matter. The Anguilla Minister of Finance stressed that the line of credit at the ECCB was a normal arrangement and that Anguilla, being a member, had the privilege of benefiting from funds from the Bank on short term loans based on the circulation of the EC dollar in the various member states of the Currency Union. He explained that Anguilla had one of the lowest circulations of EC dollars thus affecting its profits from the ECCB as well as the level of the line of credit available.

Mr. Banks said the Anguilla Government had applied to the ECCB to extend credit to the island of 12 million dollars to assist with the payment of salaries for November and December. He stated that the line of credit was approved with various Governments in the sub-region allocating a portion of their available short term credit to enable the ECCB to provide the funding for Anguilla. The line of credit was arranged as follows: 6.5 million dollars from the line of credit of the Government of Antigua; 2.1 million from the line of credit from the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines; 2.1 million from the line of credit from the Government of Dominica; and the rest coming from the line of credit from Anguilla. He explained that some time before Anguilla had extended a line of credit of 5.328 million dollars to the Government of Antigua.

Mr. Banks was asked whether the Government of Anguilla should not have told the people of the island about the line of credit it had requested from the ECCB, thus avoiding the current misunderstanding. He replied that the availability of the facility was a normal one for all member states and it was a policy matter at the ECCB and not necessarily subject to public information.

Meanwhile, Opposition Member, Hubert Hughes, commented on the matter the same day when he held a press conference. He did not pay any particular attention to the issue, but suggested that the people of Anguilla should have been told about the matter before and there would not have been any issue. “Had it not been a fact that the Prime Minister of Dominica mentioned it, on his campaign trail, to justify his prudent management of his finances, nobody in Anguilla would have known that the Minister of Finance had been borrowing money recently from the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank or any other bank for that matter,” he pointed out. “I don’t care what the Minister says. The fact remains he had been borrowing money from the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank. Dominica’s credit reserves in the Bank have been used by the Bank to supply this loan to the Anguilla Government.

“It doesn’t matter whether it is 12, 20 or 3 million dollars. If 12 million dollars was approved, it doesn’t mean that the Anguilla Government would draw down the whole amount right away. It is approved and they can draw it down at a million dollars, two million dollars, at a time. The essential point is that the credit has been approved for 12 million dollars.”

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