The Hon. Asot Michael M.P.
Representative from St. Peter
Constituency
Contribution to Budget Debate 2014
Parliament
February 03, 2014
Thank you, Madame Speaker. I rise to
make my contribution to Budget 2014 debate.
Today, I would like to examine four
areas in the Budget that will negatively impact the citizens and residents of
the St. Peter Constituency, and adversely affect all the good people of Antigua
and Barbuda. I would like to examine:
i) The under-funding for the
Electoral Commission (ABEC) in the Budget;
ii) The untenable conditions
at the Mount St. John Medical Center;
iii) The burdensome debt which
the UPP regime has incurred and continues to incur; and
iv) The failure to expand economic
opportunities, caused by the weight of high taxes, which in turn negatively
impacts foreign direct investment and job creation.
First, however, I wish to extend
congratulations to the Member from St. George for her hands-on approach in
managing the official funeral for Sir Adolphus Freeland, last Thursday January
30. From start to finish, the responsibilities of the Member for St. George
were executed with precision. Congratulations.
Sir Adolphus Freeland was a highly
regarded Member of Parliament. His role as General Secretary of the AT&LU
for five years, 1971 to 1976, prepared him for his ensuing responsibilities as
a Minister of Labour.
Sir George Walter was also General
Secretary of the AT&LU before he became Premier or Head of Government. The
Honourable Lionel Hurst Senior, before Sir George, was General Secretary of the
AT&LU for 13 years, and then he became the first Minister of Labour. I note
also that the Member for St. John’s Rural West was an employee of the
AT&LU; he revealed on Thursday that his studies at the Coady
Institute were afforded him by the AT&LU.
46 North Street was certainly a
great training ground for political advancement. All of us owe a debt to the
AT&LU for creating a new Antigua, a new economy, and new opportunities for
achieving self-fulfillment. We should not be plotting to destroy that 75
year-old Union.
Madame Speaker: The so-called Public
Sector Transformation strategy, appearing on page 46 of the Budget
Statement, does not tell the whole story. The Finance Minister’s remarks only
skimpily describe the process taking place. The AT&LU sees this Public
Sector Transformation strategy as being no more than an attempt to deprive the
AT&LU of the revenues it derives, as bargaining agent, from all Non-Established
workers as dues.
By proposing a single-tier service
and making every Government employee an Established Worker—as proposed by the
Public Sector Transformation Unit—the AT&LU President discerns an attempt
to kill the AT&LU.
The money which the AT&LU
derives from the weekly and monthly dues of the Non-Established workers is a
significant portion of the AT&LU’s revenues. If those revenues are diverted
to the ABPSA when all government employees are classified as civil servants,
the AT&LU will be killed.
Madame Speaker: I believe that
Section 106(5) of the Antigua and Barbuda Constitution Order stipulates that
all public officers are to be represented by the Antigua and Barbuda Civil
Service Association—the ABPSA. AT&LU will therefore be cut off from its major
source of revenue, if the plan is adopted. That cannot be right.
The AT&LU opposes the
so-called public sector transformation for another reason. The
labour experts who have studied our government service have indicated that
merging both the Established and Non-Established work force is a task
near-impossible. The differences in benefits and salaries are just too vast. To
bridge those existing gaps is far too expensive—the horse has already bolted.
To eliminate the category of
Non-Established is also to rob the Ministers of the flexibility in hiring
experts and others that will be required from time-to-time. That plan
ought to be stopped. In all likelihood, you won’t have the time to change the
law before the elections. If you should try, the Labour Party will reverse the
plan as soon as it becomes the government after March, anyway.
Madame Speaker:
Elections are not going to be won or
lost on the basis of a threat to the 75 year-old union which we love. Although
the Union has 7,000 members, the AT&LU like all unions, is less influential
than in days past. Nevertheless, in marginal constituencies, support from the
AT&LU is critical. Madame Speaker: Public Sector Transformation is a
disguise that we will address frontally when the moment arrives. I prefer to
move on to speaking about the planning for Elections 2014 and its management by
the Antigua and Barbuda Electoral Commission
Madame Speaker: Elections cannot be
successfully held if the Electoral Commission is not properly funded. In 2009,
the General Elections were not very well executed. Voting in several polling
divisions began very late because of a printer malfunction. Sir Gerald Watt
subsequently reported that he had to plead and to beg in order to get the money
required to conduct general elections. That cannot be fair.
The Commission, weeks before the
2009 elections, purchased a printer for $17,000when a printer
costing $97,000 was required. The cheap printer malfunctioned
when they put it to work, and the elections were very poorly conducted.
Member from Rural West: That cannot
be allowed to happen again. The Electoral Commission must be provided with all
the money required to conduct elections well. The Parliament is supposed to be
the guardians of our democracy. We are not hired by the people in order to
diminish their democracy.
I note however that the amount
budgeted for the ABEC in 2014 is $4,676,783 (on white page
87). That amount exceeds 2013 expenditure by about ($600,000) six hundred
thousand dollars. Salaries and Wages of permanent staff, as seen on page 30,
will total $2,829,848 dollars.
I find it very hard to believe that
the ABEC will hire more than 100 additional staff, contract trainers, print
48,000 high-tech cards, buy time on radio and television and in the Newspapers,
defend multiple lawsuits, and enter into all manner of contracts in 2014, an
election year, and those expenses will cost only six hundred thousand dollars
more than 2013, a non-election year. Something is wrong.
Nowhere in the estimates do I see a
breakdown for the expenses, except for salaries and wages and allowances (on
orange page 30). Help me to understand: Where are the expenses explained? How
can this Honourable House be assured that the 2014 general elections will not
be a repeat of the 2009 debacle?
The people of St. Peter can recall
that they did not have an opportunity to vote until1:00 pm on Election Day
2009. Can I assure them that they will be able to commence exercising their
franchise at 6:00 am until 6:00 pm? I want the assurance, in advance, Mr.
Prime Minister. Elections must be free and fair; and, only if the money is
sufficient, can that happen. Where is the June 2013 ABEC Report? Or, the
December Report?
Madame Speaker: I am aware that the
Boundaries case and the re-registration case are before the courts. Can we
imagine the confusion if, following claims and objections, that could last up
to three weeks, the Electoral Commission is compelled to move around the
registered voters because boundaries change? I ask how is that to be done in
time for a general election due by March 12 2014?
We are less than 40 days and 40
nights removed from the day on which general elections are due. Take 28 days
out for claims and objections, and fewer than two weeks remain for changing
constituency boundaries. What confusion will we witness? And, what confusion
will further result when the Appeals Court rules in favour of the Labour Party
in the re-registration case, as is likely to be the outcome on February
14!
The decisions taken by the Rural
West representative were classic examples of procrastination, delay, lateness.
Madame Speaker: He was forewarned. Accept the Report of the Boundaries
Commission, start changing boundaries, and a lawsuit is sure to follow, he was
warned. We have had to call in the referee.
I caution the UPP regime to desist
from taking continuously those harmful decisions that will further destroy our
country. We are already perceived as a place where incompetence rules. Please
do not allow the 2014 elections to confirm the view that the UPP Regime cannot
do anything right.
Madame Speaker: Whether the
challenge is posed by holding on-time elections or managing a shrinking
economy, the results appear to be the same: Failure.
I waded through the debt-reporting
section of the Recurrent and Development Estimates at the very back of the
publication, beginning at page 63.
(After page 406 of the Estimates,
seventy separate pages are added that are paginated differently and colored
orange and yellow. Please tell the typists to ensure that the lines on the
left, identifying the accounts, fall on the same plane as the figures on the
right. I have to engage in guess work on pages 63 and 64.)
The National Debt is broken down
into two: Domestic and External.
The Domestic Debt stands at one
billion, six hundred and thirty-nine point two million ($1,639.2) dollars, the
statement claims.
The External Debt, we are told,
stands at one billion, one hundred and ninety-two million ($1,192.0) dollars,
the statement also claims.
Together, these two amounts total
two billion, eight hundred and thirty-one point two($2,831.2) million
dollars. This amount, we have been told, is the National Debt.
Yet, you have failed to include in
an understandable manner, several other borrowings that the Government has
either guaranteed, or borrowed through a statutory body, or the government owes
to statutory bodies and corporations, businesses and workers.
How is the $550 million dollars owed
to Social Security treated? $220 million semed to have vanished in this Budget!
On page 65, item #2, an amount of $330 million dollars is
acknowledged, with an interest payment of $5,953,751 to be
made in 2014. Neither the smaller amount ($330 million), or the larger amount
($550 million), is included in the debt stock, however, so that the National
Debt is significantly understated. Is that a trick?
How is the amount owed to Medical
Benefits treated? On page 65, item #3, an amount of $125,852,116 dollars is
listed as the debt. That amount is not included in the National Debt either.
Where is the amount owed to the
Board of Education? What about the amount owed to State Insurance? What about
the amount owed to Mount St. John Medical Center? What about the debt owed to
West Indies Oil Company? The debt owed to the Antigua Power Company? The debt
owed to Half Moon Bay? The debt you owe to civil servants in the form of back
pay, overtime, and unpaid allowances? Where are they? What is wrong is to
be made right, you said.
The APUA debts for the reverse
osmosis plants are not accounted for, here; is that an APUA debt? Has it been
guaranteed by the Central Government?
The Wadadli Chinese Power
Plant is accounted for on page 69, item listed as 42; but, where is the
original amount of the two loans totaling US$52.5 million dollars? Is the $5
million in payment of interest, as indicated, going towards that loan
in 2014? Can the power plant generate that much in profits in order to meet the
obligation? Plus, $8,514,553 in repayment of principal has been budgeted in 2014
(Line 42, page 69). Will that power plant generate that much even in revenue?
What about the operating expenses? That plant consumes inordinate amounts of
fuel (HFO/Bunker C) and diesel and lubricating oil.
Why have the reports, scheduled to
be published each month, disappeared from the Newspaper since last September
2013? Why isn’t the Newspaper publishing the monthly consumption, production,
and other data that usually are communicated to the public?
Why the interest payment of ($2,401,955) two
million, four hundred and one thousand, nine hundred and fifty-five dollars on
the first of two loans to build the air terminal at the V.C.
Bird Airport? Can you tell us about that? Isn’t there a moratorium on both
interest and principal? Why has the Parliament never seen this contract? Maybe
that is a silly question. You have brought only one contract here. The creditor
insisted that you obey the law. (I believe that to be Credit Suisse, for the
airport upgrade, at Item 5 and 6 on page 70, where zeros appear).
What about the Venezuelan loan of
August 2009, which is listed in item #39 on page 69 as US50 million dollars?
First, when the Minister of Finance told us how he would be spending the money,
it totaled US$48.5 million. What happened to the additional US$1.5 million?
Where is that accounted for? The Minister made the announcement of the loan on
Crusader Radio, on August 13 2009, not in Parliament. What about the agreement?
Do you have any plans to bring it here to Parliament? It is noted that you plan
to pay $3,873,420 in interest payments, in 2014. Can we see the loan agreement?
The Prime Minister told us that he received a telephone call from Mr. Chavez
at 1:00 am that August 2009 morning. Can we see the loan agreement in
this parliament?
Madame Speaker: Can I bring the
attention of this Honourable House to items #6 through items #17 of page 66 of
the Estimates. This Parliament has yet to see the loan documents, as required
by law, and yet to give its authorization to borrow on the Regional Government
Securities Market, the following excessive amounts:
On June 30 2011: US$13,000,000
million= EC$35 mil
On July 27 2011: $20,000,000 million
On July 28 2011: $5,530,000
There is no listing for 2012, so
there must be a mistake!
On March 28 2013: $10,000,000
million
On July 31 2013: US$13,000,000
million=EC$35 mil
On September 6 2013: $17,990,000
OnSeptember26 2013:
US$5,050,000=EC$13,635,000
On October 9 2013: $20,000,000
On November 13 2013: $20,920,000
On December 5 2013: $10,000,000
On December 17 2013: $15,000,000
You borrowed from Royal Bank:
$2,750,000 in 2012.
You borrowed from SAGICOR $7,500,000
in 2011
You borrowed from ScotiaBank a sum
and restructured the same in the amount of $18,131,199, and in August 2013:
$5,000,000 again from ScotiaBank.
In November 2009, you went to
Stanford’s bank, ECAB, and reconsolidated $105,376,871 dollars in loans.
You would go to the ACB and get
$3,500,000 in a demand loan. You would return again for a $58 million dollar
restructured loan.
You would go to the Global bank of
Commerce and contract another loan for US$1,568,204 dollars.
At the Antigua and Barbuda
Investment Bank, you would get another $238,549,064 dollars. And again, another
$33,000,000.
Can the Minister please explain item
#12 on page 67 where you borrowed $11 million to purchase the Food City
building. And further explain item #18 where you indicate purchase of a turbine
in 2005 by way of a loan exceeding $10 million dollars RBTT.
Madame Speaker:
I have not listed the amounts
borrowed from the Caribbean Union Bank, the Royal Bank of Trinidad and Tobago
(RBTT), First Caribbean International bank, or the East Caribbean Central Bank.
This has been a tax, borrow and
splurge government. Where are the assets from all these borrowings? They do not
exist. The outgoing government has splurged, feted and thrown away millions of
our money.
We will inherit their debts. We will
inherit their mal-spending. We will face their troubled legacies. But we are
ready for the challenges. We are ready to for the rescue. We have done it
before, we will do it again. The end is nigh. A new beginning is around the
corner. God bless the Antigua and Barbuda nation. God bless the people of St.
Peter’s. We are ready! Thank you.
