| Roberts says British won’t make same mistakes again | | Print | |
| Wednesday, 03 February 2010 19:55 | |||
 Addressing the press for the first time in six months since his last visit to the country, Director of Overseas Territories Colin Roberts made it clear — when the British government returns the country back to an elected government, it will be staying around to ensure good governance is upheld. “It will not be a simple return to the position that existed in August 2009,” Roberts said. “The British government is determined to not allow a situation to arise as identified by Sir Robin Auld in his final report.”
Roberts communicated the U.K.’s strong commitment to uphold the mid-2011 deadline for new elections, but after that time, “a greater British presence than existed before” is to be expected. According to Roberts, a constitutional review is about to be launched and expected to take approximately six months. He told the press that this review would also include a review of the electoral system and political system. “I have no idea what the outcome will be,” Roberts said, but he assured that it would include a process of wide consultation. “The end result must be to put in place an arrangement to give the British government and the international community confidence that the reforms are irreversible and that the principles of good governance will be upheld.” British oversight Although he would not speculate on what exactly the increased presence would mean, he said it would include several more U.K. representatives in the TCI than had been present (approximately 4) during the past years to ensure good governance is enforced. Criticism has been raised in the past that much of the corruption that did occur happened under the watch of a British governor, to which Roberts explained was a fault in the system, and they intend to ensure this would not happen again with the expected changes. Roberts said looking back on the history of the constitutional arrangement of the TCI, there were times when the mix between the constitutional framework, the way the governor carried out his duties and the resources made available to him were not always correct. “The last governor did raise concerns about a range of issues on a number of occasions, but we did not have concrete evidence to provide a basis to launch an inquiry,” Roberts said. “In nearly every territory we receive a constant stream of allegations that come in … a lot may be politically motivated, and it is a difficult decision to launch an inquiry, it is only taken when the government in London is absolutely convinced.” Making progress While many see the process as moving slowly, Robert rebuts with a laundry list of tasks they have undertaken in the past six months. “As you will have seen in the governor’s first three-month report in November, a great deal of the core work has been done following the recommendations to Sir Robin Auld’s report,” Roberts said. The first six months have been a period of stabilization, acknowledging the state of the finances were considerably worse than they had expected. “It was a situation where we were opening up cupboards and finding unopened envelopes with million dollar invoices in it,” Roberts said. Roberts said the $85 million loan, which is expected to be released within the week, will give the country some breathing room — especially for those small business owners who will finally see payment for long overdue invoices with the government — but the work to close the deficit in the budget is only just beginning. “We will need to make further cuts to public expenditure,” Roberts explained, but said in the short term it does not seem to be possible to close the gap without negatively affecting the economy, so the deficit may continue. The draft revenue report is expected out next week, when the public will receive a clearer picture of what can be expected in terms of changes in taxes or possible adjustments to revenue streams. Planning ahead Roberts said he has been impressed by the progress over the past six months, but that it was “harder then we expected, and as a result we have had to put extra resources into what we are doing to keep up the pace.” He assures the public will start seeing over the next few months the progress that has been made, as they move into the next phase — future outlook planning. “We want to develop a mid-term and long-term plan for the TCI,” Roberts said. This includes answering questions like, “What should the TCI offer to international tourism market in the future?” This includes setting a vision for the country that everyone is clear on and can work towards in order to secure the future economy of the country. Roberts worries the current models are not creating enough revenue return for the country and sees a need to look at what the local market can offer that will be greater than what is available today. “We are creating the framework for these discussions to happen,” Roberts said, as well as restructuring the bodies for people to do that, but that the ideas need to come from the private sector to secure the economic future. “Building a partnership with the private sector is crucial part of laying the basis for a health future for the TCI.”
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