The people of Anguilla have been given an insight into the difficult financial position of the island (see follow-up statement elsewhere in The Anguillian) and various matters relating to the functioning of the Ministers of Government, since the election to office of the Anguilla United Movement Administration.

Government addressing attendees at the meeting L-R: Hon Walcott Richardson, Hon. Edison Baird, Hon. Evan Gumbs, Pastor Hugo Brooks and CM Hubert Hughes

The well-attended public consultation was held at the Rodney MacArthur Rey Auditorium on Thursday March 11.Several senior personnel from the Ministry of Finance sat in to assist the Government in explaining the financial difficulties facing the island which still requires the passage of a 2010 budget.
Among the matters brought to the attention of the public was the 2010 projected expenditure and revenue. The figures showed recurrent revenue of $148,000,000 and recurrent expenditure of $237,196,955 resulting in a recurrent gap of $89,196,955 (or $90,000,000 to round off the figure).

Mr. Aidan Harrigan and Mrs. Kathleen Rogers

How to deal with this situation, and to close the gap, was a matter of much concern at the meeting. Deputy Chief Minister, Edison Baird, along with Dr. Aidan Harrigan, Permanent Secretary, Economic Development, and Mrs. Kathleen Rogers, Permanent Secretary, Finance, spoke at length on the island’s fiscal situation. The discussions they led followed a number of observations made by Chief Minister, Hubert Hughes, who allowed them to take over the meeting.
Former Permanent Secretary, Finance, Franklin Connor, asked what the Government would do to ensure it had the minimum amount of money required to finance the public services, bearing in mind the need to raise an additional ninety million dollars.

“We are going to tackle it on two fronts,” Mr. Baird replied. “For example, we instructed the Ministry of Finance to come up with an economic plan for closing this gap. And when the technocrats would have come up with the plan, then they and the Ministers would go on a two-day retreat and finalise our approach to closing this gap.”

L-R: Elkin Richardson, Hon. Barbara Webster Bourne, Gwenneth Johnson, Alkin Rogers and Sam Webster

Mr. Baird went on: “If you look at the situation facing Anguilla, what is clearly needed to dig ourselves out of this difficulty is for the economy to grow; and if the economy grows, more revenue will go into the Treasury. We are going off to Brussels and to London. We are going to seek financial assistance from the British Government and we are going to ask them to show more flexibility in terms of the borrowing guidelines. So those are going to be two of the approaches that we will use to come up with a plan for closing the gap between expenditure and revenue.

In addition, we are holding discussions with a number of parties who have shown an interest in purchasing what we refer to locally as the golf course [project]. We have had discussions with the Salamander Group…and with another group interested in purchasing the golf course. Each of these two groups has said that it has the necessary funds not only to purchase the golf course project, but to actually finish it. The projections we have received from the Salamander Group are that they are prepared to start construction the minute that the purchase takes place; and they are confident that 900 jobs will be created when they start construction. When those 900 jobs are created, they will act as a stimulant to the economy. It would mean that people would have more money to spend; and other sources that feed on the tourism industry will also grow – such as restaurants, fishermen and farmers selling their goods to the hotels.

One of the two sections of the attendees at the Public Forum

“That is the way we intend to deal with the difficulty. But I must emphasise the point that no matter what we do, the fundamental solution to this economic crisis is to grow the economy. We can’t borrow our way out of it; we have to grow our way out of it. We intend to borrow money so as to provide us with more operational scope, but we have on the table a number of plans to get various projects up and running.”

Still on the subject of narrowing the recurrent gap, Marlon Lake asked what measures could be taken to mimimise or cut back expenditure or widen the island’s revenue base. Mr. Baird responded: “I wish to point out that the British Government has funded a revenue study which has been done by a Mr. Roe, a former Professor of Economics at Warrick University in England…We will be asking the British Government to fund an expenditure study so that we can see exactly where we are spending our money and what areas we can make savings in terms of expenditure.”

Another one of the two sections of the attendees at the Public Forum

Mrs. Kathleen Rogers said that since last year, a recovery plan had been partly implemented, but going forward there was a need to look at a number of areas in terms of reducing expenditure. Among other matters, she referred to wastage of electricity; the increases in public servants’salaries which were later reduced and which the Government might consider whether there was a need to implement a further cut. She noted that there were now some immediate savings from the retrenchment of the Special Assistants and pointed out that other savings could be made from the disuse of government vehicles to overcome the high cost of fuel and maintenance.

Mr. Baird stressed that another area of high expenditure was the Health Authority of Anguilla which in 2009 required a Government subvention of EC$21,000,000. He declared that the new Administration would dismantle the Health Authority and assume full responsibility for the medical and health services to save expenditure while ensuring efficiency.

Mr. Harry Wiggin and Mrs. Wanda Brooks (at the forefront) and others

Earlier in the meeting, Chief Minister and Minister of Finance, Hubert Hughes, pointed out various examples of what he thought were overspending and wastage of the island’s finances by the previous Government. After painting a gloomy picture of Anguilla’s economy, Mr. Hughes told his listeners in part: “Despite the hard times, I feel happy because I see hope in your faces. This of course brings great obligations and responsibilities to me. It is said ‘uneasy lies the head that wears the crown’. I have sleepless nights now but one day, very soon, I will make you happy.”

At that point Mr. Hughes turned over further discussion on the island’s economic situation to Mr. Baird. The Deputy Chief Minister noted that the previous Government did not prepare a budget for 2010. “Whenever a Government refuses to bring a budget, you must be alarmed,” he stated. “We knew the situation was very difficult, but we did not anticipate the depth of the crisis that we are now faced with. If you perceive the Treasury to be a room in which money, loans and bills are kept, when we opened the door we did not find any money. We found loans and bills. It is a terrible financial situation to have inherited. For example, the debt of Anguilla is 172 million EC dollars. That is a staggering amount of money for a small, open and vulnerable economy. If you added the unpaid invoices, the figure goes up to over 200 million dollars.”

Percy Thomas and others

The fiscal position of Anguilla was prefaced by various statements by the Chief Minister and his Ministerial team – Mr. Baird, Mr. Walcott Richardson and Mr. Evan Gumbs – about their first few weeks in office, their visits so far to departments and other areas of their responsibility. They took the opportunity to pledge their commitment and service to the electorate as their elected representatives and as Ministers of Government.
The public consultation, attended by well over 200 persons, was chaired by Pastor Hugo Brooks of World Harvest Ministries.

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