Necessary Cost Adjustments

 

Under the Quarantine Act and the Regulations made under it, Anguillians and residents of Anguilla returning home from certain countries that are experiencing dangerous levels of the Covid-19 disease, such as the USA, must be taken directly from the port they arrive at to an authorized place of quarantine.  There, they are provided with lodging, medical attention, security, food, and drink, all at the public expense.  This lasts for a period of approximately two weeks.  They are not allowed to pay for it.  Even if they wish to pay for their board and lodging, they are not permitted to do so.  The rules, they are told, require that this be a public expense.  Millions of dollars, I understand, have been disbursed by the past and present government on this venture since quarantines started in March.  This is an expense that was never budgeted for.  It is money that we can ill afford.  Our economy has tanked with the failure of our tourism industry since the start of the year due to the pandemic.

The House of Assembly should be asked to vote on a Bill to require persons who are detained, quarantined, or placed in isolation, to pay the costs of their quarantine.  Most if not all Anguillians will agree that this is a necessary reform.  It is unfair to the Anguillian public that we should have to pay the costs incurred by persons who choose to return to Anguilla at this time, and put us all to the risk of contracting the disease.  If returnees wish to enjoy the comfort and safety of home, they should be willing to pay for all associated costs incurred by their return from abroad.  This has become the international standard, and we will not be doing anything unusual in having our law ensure this.

Care must be taken to ensure such a provision does not offend against our constitutional right to freedom of movement.  There is an exception in cases of public health and safety.  The necessary Orders must first be made by the Governor and Executive Council under the Constitution and the Public Health Act.

It is a simple enough measure to enforce.  One of the conditions for permitting the return to Anguilla should be a payment of a deposit, say US$10,000.00, per person into the Treasury.  That would give the provision teeth.  The deposit will be refunded, less the cost of all disbursements associated with their quarantine, at the end of their quarantine.  If this proves too expensive for any would-be returnee, he or she is not obliged to make the payment.  They can simply stay where they are and save the cost of returning.

The duty to refund government’s costs should not be limited to persons who return to Anguilla with the permission of the Quarantine Authority.  It should extend to persons who enter illegally.  In the case of persons who are caught illegally entering Anguilla in breach of the Quarantine Act or any Regulations made under it, the Act should provide that one of the conditions for their release from custody is the payment of a cash bond, say US$10,000.00, to secure the refund to government of all costs incurred in their arrest and detention and medical treatment including but not limited to transportation, board, lodging, medical and other.  It should cover all costs of tracing and treating the persons who have encounter the illegal entrant.

Nor should this bond be limited to persons who want to return in the future.  There is nothing legally impossible or morally wrong in the law being drafted to authorize Government to demand a refund of part or all the past costs paid in maintaining earlier returnees in quarantine at the public expense.  Every effort should be made to recover the past costs incurred in relation to persons who have been given permission under the Quarantine Act and its Regulations to enter Anguilla since January 2020.  This may be hard on some of the persons and families affected.  They can be given time to meet the refund, and other terms.  In suitable cases, perhaps certified by the Department of Social Development after the application of a Means Test, the law might even provide for exceptions to be made.  In my view, most if not all the persons who have had their quarantine expenses paid for by government should be obliged to refund all the costs that were paid out of public funds.

What is certain is that we cannot continue to meet this expense.  We simply do not have the money in the public purse.  In one of his last speeches in the House of Assembly, the outgoing Minister of Finance revealed that our projected tax revenue for the year 2020 will be about one half of the amount budgeted.  Further, we do not know how long the quarantine provisions will have to continue into the future.  Given the irresponsible behaviour of the US and certain other governments in dealing with their own infections, it might last until well into 2022.

Since I wrote the above paragraphs, someone has pointed out to me a draft Quarantine (Amendment) Bill on the Order Paper for debate on 11 August.  It is a noticeably short Bill.  It provides,

“(1a) Notwithstanding subsection (1) the Quarantine Authority may require persons who are detained, quarantined or in isolation pursuant to this Act to pay in part or in full the expenses incurred by the Quarantine Authority in detaining, quarantining or isolating such persons.”

This is inadequate.  It is a token provision.  It is for show only.  It lacks teeth.  It is filled with loopholes.  It gives a power to charge the costs without any mechanism for collection. 

Bearing in mind that the Constitution limits the power of the Assembly to pass an Act restricting our freedom of movement, care must be taken to ensure that the necessary State of Emergency and Public Health Orders and Proclamations are renewed from time to time.  The ones made earlier this year all appear to have expired without being renewed.  Without care being taken, any law restricting entry into Anguilla by Anguillians may be unconstitutional and unenforceable.

And, while we are on cost cutting measures, is there any reason why a 40% tax cannot be imposed on all pensions previously paid to Ministers and Parliamentarians?  These payments have been a huge drain on our Treasury.  They have met with universal condemnation in Anguilla.  I do not have the exact figures at hand.  We have all seen various sums circulating in the media.  If these are correct, we have paid out tens of millions of dollars in the past several years in gratuities and pensions to retiring parliamentarians.  They need to do their part now that we are in crisis.  They need to refund some of this undeserved largess they paid themselves.  A 40% tax should be immediately imposed retroactively on the pensions and gratuities of every living parliamentarian who benefitted.  Retired parliamentarians and Ministers should be happy to agree to refund 40% of the very generous pensions and gratuities paid to them.  To answer the question at the start of the paragraph, care will have to be taken to ensure that such an Act does not offend against the protection of private property provision in the Anguilla Constitution.  If it does, then retired parliamentarians will need to be shamed into making a voluntary return of their ill-gained pensions.

Such an essential reform, if legal, is not intended to be retroactive only.  Entitlement to pension and gratuity for future retirees should be reduced accordingly, ie, by 40%.  Those who are presently in the House of Assembly and in Government would be aware of how untenable and unsustainable their overly generous pension provisions are.  There is no possible legal or moral objection that can be made to such a reduction.

While we are on the topic of curtailing benefits, why not extend the cuts to parliamentary salaries and allowances?  Anguillian politicians are in receipt of a high level of remuneration that is not matched in any other West Indian nation.  We have heard a previous Minister of Finance make a boast of the fact.  The levels of salaries were set during the 1980s and 90s when money was flowing into the Treasury like water under a bridge.  Those days are now long gone.  We cannot afford these excessive salaries any longer.  Ministers and Parliamentarians should agree in the public interest to reduce their salaries and allowances by 40% with immediate effect.  Such a contribution would meet with universal acclaim and appreciation in Anguilla.

Anguillians join in calling on Dr Ellis Lorenzo Webster, the Hon Premier and Minister of Finance, to move the necessary actions in the Executive Council.  We urge all Ministers and Ministerial Assistants to support these initiatives.  We call on all members of the Opposition to support these measures when they arrive before them as a series of Bills for debate.  We call on all members of the House of Assembly to pass the reforms into law without undue delay.

The Economy Improves

 

I learned at breakfast in town this morning that Anguilla has a new tourism-related activity.  This one is even more incredible to me than the one about us paying for overseas medical treatment for victims of drugs-turf shootings.  In fact, I am really distressed over this one.

Apparently, one of our residents returned to Anguilla recently from the USA accompanied by several family members.  The existing bar on arrivals from the USA does not apply to returning residents.  But they are required by the Quarantine Regulations to spend 14 days in government-controlled quarantine.  This is provided at a local luxury hotel.  They were all put up at government expense for the duration.  Never mind their mode of travel back to Anguilla was the most expensive there is, private jet.  There was no question of them having to pay the cost of their own quarantine.  Indeed, we were told their offer to pay their own way during the quarantine was summarily rejected.

From what we learned, once one is an Anguilla resident returning to Anguilla from the USA, not only is the bar on visitors from the USA lifted.  Your compulsory quarantine will be spent in a local hotel at public expense.  Over the past five or six months and continuing, this generous public facility has been extended to hundreds of Anguillians and Anguilla residents regardless of their means or their need.  In the early stages of the pandemic, other countries used to cover this cost.  Most have long stopped that waste of government funds.

I wonder if to enjoy this treat, we have only to make our way to the USA.  When we return home, maybe we too will be put up at public expense in a first-class local hotel for the quarantine period.  Now that we have British taxpayer money to assist, it seems there is no holding back on the spending.  Other countries with a quarantine rule oblige travellers to pay the cost of their own quarantine.  But, not Anguilla.  We are too generous with public funds to contemplate such a burden.  Not even a means test is applied.

What a blast!  More of us should be encouraged to take advantage of this generosity.  This project deserves the widest publicity.  We must ensure it is taken up by everyone in need of a free holiday.

Also, at breakfast, I learned that the Government of Anguilla does not spend unbudgeted public funds only on quarantining returning residents.  For years, we have been sending young men who have been either shot during drugs-turf and other disputes or suffered serious accidents abroad for medical treatment.  We jet these patients by air ambulance to hospitals in Central America free of charge.  We cheerfully pick up their hospital bills.  There is no question of obliging the patient or his family to cover the cost.

It seems that persons have long quarrelled over this abuse with the department responsible for making the arrangements.  It has been explained that the service is rendered on political instructions.  For decades, you and I may have spent a small fortune paying for health insurance and the cost of medical evacuation costs for ourselves and our families.  But, in Anguilla no question of either medical insurance or means test arises once a “medical emergency” is discovered by a Minister.  It costs us millions of dollars each year, and not a cent of it appears in the budget.  Nor is any serious attempt made to recover the cost.

Some people think this is wrong, and they are labelled unkind.  On the contrary, I think this is an example of public service we should show to the rest of the world.  We should give this programme more publicity.  We ought to broadcast its details more widely.  It could be professionally advertised.  How about the theme, “Get yourself shot in Anguilla, and stay in a first-class Panamanian or Costa Rican hospital for months while seeing the world at public expense.”  Of course, not every country is as rich as we are and can afford such largess.

Finally, at breakfast we heard another story related to our tourism product.  One of the breakfast group took a drive to Blowing Point last Friday evening to see what was happening for Carnival.  He parked in the area to the east of the ferry terminal where there is a car park.  It was dusk.

All the August Carnival festivities were over.  There was no sign of life anywhere.  No Immigration, Customs or Police Officers were in sight.  There were several other cars parked in the car park.

He says he heard a small engine coming from the direction of the entrance to the harbour.  He observed an inflatable dinghy with several persons in it.  It did not go to one of the jetties.  It carried on a further couple of hundred yards to the beach where he was.  Its passengers came ashore without the benefit of a Customs of Immigration interview.  They got into a grey car and drove off.  As he drove home, he followed them behind two or three other cars.

It drove to a well-known place of male relaxation in George Hill.  When he arrived home, he called the police number given for reporting suspicious activity.  There was no one at the other end.  Instead, he got an answering machine with a recorded woman’s voice.  The voice did not say she was a police officer, so he hung up.  He went on to the government’s website and then to the page for making reports.  He typed in his anonymous report there.  The police now have the car registration number and the address the car went to.  It is up to them to follow through.

For the life of me, I cannot think of any legitimate reason why there would be no “first responders” attending Anguilla’s main passenger port at 6:00 PM every day of the year whether a holiday or not.  To a suspicious mind like mine, it is almost as though it was pre-arranged for there to be no Officer present monitoring the port at the very time the dingy was coming ashore.

I have previously written about this famous place of business in George Hill:

https://donmitchellcbeqc.blogspot.com/2018/01/anguilla-brothel-keeping.html

https://donmitchellcbeqc.blogspot.com/2018/01/is-anguilla-civilised.html

One thing is for sure.  Anguillians are an enterprising people.  We are natural entrepreneurs.  We have a history of smuggling and ignoring the law going back hundreds of years.  The outlaw life is stamped into our DNA.  Now that government is giving us a little help in developing these natural skills, nothing can hold us back.