After a break of one week, Chief Minister and Minister of Finance, Hubert Hughes, held his regular press conference on Tuesday this week.

He recalled that when he was in office in 2000, there was money in the Treasury to pay the normal national expenses but today, like the previous Administration, his Government was borrowing money each month to pay public servants.

Chief Minister Hubert Hughes

He stated that it would take sometime before the economy recovered, but he was hopeful that between now and by the year-end “things will kick-start.”

He went on: “At present, Anguilla is bankrupt. The Treasury is empty. We have to borrow money from the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank to pay August wages and that money is coming from the Dominica credit. The previous Administration did the same thing. They went to borrow from the Dominica credit. Dominica has built up a big credit in the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank in St. Kitts. Dominica has been actively, prudently managing their economy and its finances. Anguilla and Antigua had to borrow money from the Dominica credit before we came in Government. This week we have been negotiating successfully with the Dominica Government and the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank. Dominica has agreed that we can use 10 million dollars from their credit so that we can pay our wages for this month; and all the members of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank have consented to this.”

Mr. Hughes explained that the taxes in the Budget had not yet produced needed income and some of them were not yet even properly organised. A few of the active revenue-raising levies were the surcharge on electricity bills and environmental charges, he said, as well as probably telecommunications services. He charged that his Government had lost the first taxes, amounting to 8 million dollars, which the British Government recommended, because the Governor had refused to sign the unbalanced budget. “This is the dilemma of being a British colony,” he stressed. “People need to know that Britain gives us nothing and Britain can mess us up. I could not understand why the Governor did not sign that budget.”

Mr. Hughes disclosed that a few days ago he and the Parliamentary Secretary had talks with the St. Maarten Minister of Tourism. The discussions were on the possibility of quickly processing tourists arriving at Juliana Airport bound for Anguilla, to speed up their arrival here. He saw this as a means of improving travel to the island and earning much-needed tourist dollars to help boost the economy.

Further, he said the Government met with the developers of the proposed Fountain Cavern project at Shoal Bay. “We have worked out a system whereby we will give them certain duty concessions and that will be our share of the development of the Fountain,” he told reporters. “We have asked these people whether they can oversee the development and spend some of their own money in developing it. They must also be able to tap into certain international organisations and foundations. That cave needs to be developed because it would give some diversification and attraction to Anguilla.” He said that part of the project, in the surrounding area, would include a 140-room tourism accommodation property. “This is a significant and unique project and it is taking an area which was already alienated for a failed project,” Mr. Hughes continued. “They are going to make something out of it and once that project starts, people will go to work…and when people spend money, the economy grows. When the project is completed, there will be jobs…where persons, especially from Island Harbour and Stoney Ground, can go to work…

“We also had discussions [Tuesday morning] with the bankers who lent the money to the KOR Group to buy 200-odd acres of land at Savannah Bay, which Spadaro [an investor in St. Maarten] bought initially…but that project was never developed."

Mr. Hughes said the KOR Group was interested in selling the land as the bankers were calling for their money. “We told the bank representatives that we will give them a letter of intent… Whoever [is involved] must understand that this new Government is not going anymore for real estate [development] and we are not going into Memorandums of Agreement. We will go into a Memorandum of Understanding which is a living document and a flexible situation.”

The Chief Minister informed the press that the Government issued a Letter of Intent to Mr. Rizzuto, owner of CuisinArt Resort and Spa, to build a large hotel at the Flag project. “The Government of Anguilla told the receivers that we have a lot of confidence in Mr. Rizzuto - that he has been tried and tested,” Mr. Hughes said. “He has always delivered on his word and, of course, Mr. Rizzuto and everybody else has to agree with that Letter of Intent we gave out.

“The Letter of Intent insisted a large hotel tourism element and that is exactly what Mr. Rizzuto has agreed to do. He has already started engineering surveys to see how he can build a major hotel on the site where Sillerman was building a 32-room hotel on 300 acres of land.” Mr. Hughes declared that ‘divine providence' had stopped the project and Anguilla had been saved the dilemma of a wasted resource. “Mr. Rizzuto is ready to put down a 100-bedroom suite, as we asked for, as soon as he can get agreement with the receivers. As far as the Government is concerned, even the Governor is enchanted about what Mr. Rizzuto said.”

Mr. Hughes noted, however, that the receivers had undertaken to introduce another interested company to Government on Wednesday. “I understand that they put in a bigger bid to the receivers than what Mr. Rizzuto put in; but we are not interested in who bids the most. What we are in interested in is who will give us the best type of development and I told the receiver that. I am not interested in what you get or don’t get. What I am interested in is whether you are bringing somebody here who will give us what we want in terms of development. We are satisfied with what Mr. Rizzuto is offering.”

Responding to a question regarding what priority the Government was placing on constitutional reform, Chief Minister Hughes said the process had been going on for about twelve years. Lately he had decided to work with the previous Government on the issue, but had subsequently broken away “when they messed it up.”

“My issue is that the process should have been completed. Our hands are tied because: who dominates Executive Council? The Governor and Deputy Governor and that should be our Cabinet. No Governor/Deputy Governor should sit in our Cabinet. This is wrong. It is a constitutional anomaly which must be dealt with,” he told the media. According to him, he has already met with legal persons and requested them to prepare a shortened version of the main parts of the constitution. He explained that this included areas where elected representatives were not allowed to perform and where there was too much power in the hands of a Secretary of State in London and the Governor of Anguilla.

“I cannot go to Britain and talk about independence unless I have a referendum. The people must vote in a referendum,” the Chief Minister pointed out. "I will ask the people to do that at some stage and if they say 'yes', I can start talking independence with Britain. There is nothing to be gained from remaining a British Dependent Territory other than more slavery. We can’t move forward.

“Right now I can get big money in Anguilla, but the reason I can’t take that money is because it has to pass through Britain.”

On another matter, Mr. Hughes disclosed that his AUM party at a meeting on Monday night had asked him, as leader, to meet with the team appointed to look into the dismantlement of the Health Authority of Anguilla. He said that the team “suggested that instead of doing completely away with the concept of Health Authority, as you want to keep the civil service control out of health, that the Minster be completely responsible for health and appoint a Commissioner to run it on his behalf.” He stated that the Government would look into the matter with all the Ministers. “It is exciting to me to know we can avoid a situation where it becomes a civil service issue,” he said. “The dilemma of the Governor being responsible for the public service and another civil servant, the Deputy Governor, running the Permanent Secretaries, I am not sure that this is the right system for Anguilla.

“I believe that after every election, because Governors are not elected, they should be exchanged; that the Deputy Governor should go, the whole apparatus should go and the new Government coming in should bring in people who can carry out their policies." He charged that there were “Permanent Secretaries who were actually challenging Ministers in this present Government.”

Told that the Governor informed reporters, last week, that he had not received any written complaint from himabout civil servants, despite his repeated claims, the Chief Minister replied: “I don’t have to write. I don’t have to go to hell to complain to the devil. The point is that the Governor cannot pretend that he doesn’t know what is going on. I will not complain my own people to a British Governor. If my people don’t have any self-respect, that’s their business.”

Other matters on which Mr. Hughes replied to questions included the requirement by the British Government for the Anguilla Government to balance its budget over the next three years, and the Cap Juluca Memorandum of Understanding.

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