fp Turks and Caicos

The refusal to wait one week to allow more time for the Consultative Forum to review the government’s 2011-12 budget was the last straw for forum member Drexwell Seymour, who quietly resigned last week.

His Excellency the Gov. Gordon Wetherell has appointed Turks and Caicos Islands businessman John Alistair Phillips to replace Seymour.

“It is with regret that I received last week the resignation of Mr. Drexwell Seymour as a member of the Consultative Forum,” the governor said. “I am grateful to him for his contribution to the work of the forum.”

Seymour was already considering leaving the appointed body that hears, questions and discusses interim government proposals and pressing public issues when the budget impasse occurred.

“It has been a long process,” Seymour told the fp. “It’s not something that happened overnight. The main thing that pushed me to resign was the way in which the budget process was handled. I was going to resign prior to that, but I decided to stay on.”

The budget approval process ran past the end of the government’s fiscal year March 31, and Seymour and other forum members were asked to review a large number of proposed new revenue sources and cost-cutting measures aimed at pulling the government out of deep debt.

“I was the first to ask for the meeting to be deferred because I didn’t have the opportunity to go to the second meeting,” he said, citing conflict with business meetings. Seymour is Country Manager of LIME Turks and Caicos.

“The very first meeting when we met with the team, it was not really a budget meeting,” he said. “It was really to advise us of the findings of the (revenue) consultants’ report.”

That report recommended hikes in many fees and taxes, including  a new 4-percent Customs Processing Fee on all goods brought into the country.

Five other forum members also felt that they did not have enough time or information about the budget and sought a one-week postponement. Forum Chairwoman Lillian Missick then canceled the April 5 meeting, saying the group would not have a quorum.

Seymour was joined in his postponement request by five other members — Dr. Linda Williams, Sharlene Cartwright-Robinson, Karen Delancy, Ethlyn Gibbs-Williams and Pastor Courtney Missick. They denied boycotting the budget meeting or trying to stop it.

The governor enacted the budget April 5 without the forum’s final review.

Seymour said he and other members tried to do the best they could, but he questions the function of the forum.

“I think we did a good job,” he said. “We were there, we debated, we passed bills, but I didn’t see how we fit into the overall picture.”

“Even though we were not elected, a lot of people in the public expect us to represent them, which we have done, but we really couldn’t represent them, really and truly. We could speak on their behalf, but that was basically it.”

“It was effective in that process, but I didn’t see overall what the end result (was), that it really took effect.”

Replacing Seymour at the forum’s next meeting May 17 is John Alistair Phillips. Born and educated in Scotland, Phillips has lived in the TCI since 1987. He received a Permanent Residency Certificate in 1998, became a naturalised citizen in 1999 and was made a Belonger in 2007.

In 1992 Phillips merged his interests in company management and insurance management with those of McCollum and Newlands to form the Claymore Group.

“Whilst the group is still very much involved in financial services, it is now perhaps the largest multidiscipline service company in TCI including interests in real estate (ERA Coralie Properties Ltd.); bulk fuels (TC Gas Ltd.); automobile dealerships (Mac Motors Ltd. with Land Rover, Jaguar, Dodge, Jeep, Chrysler and Fiat); real estate development (Stamers Park Ltd. and Caledon Center Developments); business machines (Caledonian Business Systems agents for Micros),” according to a government press release.