The Governor in his press release last week communicated that he was instructed by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to instruct the Chief Financial Officer to use his powers under the Constitution and Chief Financial Officer’s Ordinance to authorize an additional $2.2M to fund security cost for SIPT.
My Government is on record condemning this action, which, while being within the legal authority of the Governor and CFO, is considered by my Government to be an abuse of power and without proper justification. Even though I have demanded I am yet to receive any information about any threat to national security or the security of any members of the SIPT that warrants such exorbitant additional expenditure.
The only threat to national security that I am aware of is the constant threat of illegal immigrants and poachers traversing our maritime borders engaging in illegal fishing, and trafficking of human, guns and drugs. Such funding is better spent on the procurement of marine defense vessels and manpower to defend our boarders from these illegal activities, a responsibility that the UK Government has constantly shunned.
The Turks and Caicos Islands is a peaceful nation of friendly people that enjoys some of the lowest crime rates globally, and we should not be compared to other countries where acts of terrorism abound. I condemn this characterization by the Governor and demand his retraction and clarification of this outlandish and unwarranted statement. The SIPT has been operating in these islands for the last five years without incident, at the expense of the tax payers of this country, and they seem to be no further ahead than when they started but they certainly are richer.
The Turks and Caicos Islands’ House of Assembly, in previous sittings has appropriated funding for the SIPT and now, so too has the CFO and without the approval of Cabinet or House of Assembly, and in all of these instances, my Government’s calls for accountability and transparency for the expenditure of the people’s money have been blatantly ignored by the Governor, the CFO and the Commissioner of Police. This is surely not an example of good governance. We have a right to know how much of the tax payers money is being spent and what specifically it is being spent on. We do not seek to compromise the investigations but making that information available after the trials have ended is totally unacceptable and we will therefore not approve another “red cent” for SIPT.
Since coming to office in 2012 I have made representation to the UK Secretary of State, the FCO and DFID, both in writing and in person requesting them to assume the responsibility for the funding of the SIPT, as previously recommended by the UK Foreign Affairs Committee and Chief Prosecutor Helen Garlick, and the UK Government has consistently refused to accept its responsibility as a sovereign nation and provide support to these islands, but instead insists on providing employment and financial opportunities for the British on the backs of tax payers in the Turks and Caicos Islands. The economic prosperity of these islands came with the hard work of this Government and the hard work and sacrifice of the people of these islands, and such economic gains should be spent as a priority for the improvement of the lives of the people of these islands and not for the enrichment of SIPT and other UK tax payers. The UK’s insistence on the brow beating of the people both by their insistence on taxing the people to pay for SIPT as well as their recent denial of the people’s call for constitutional review are acts to be abhorred.
My Government will continue to make representation to the Secretary of State, FCO and FAC and agitate for the UK Government to live up to its responsibility as a sovereign nation and fund the SIPT or find alternate methods of exacting justice as recommended by the Report of the CARICOM Mission to the Turks and Caicos Islands and for them to uphold good governance instead of demonstrating the might of the Great British Empire in abusing its authority.
My Government is prepared to take this fight to Whitehall as we will not accept this nor the UK’s response to the House of Assembly’s recommendations for constitutional amendments. It is past time for a frank discussion onthe future of the relationship between the UK Government and the people of these “beautiful by nature” islands.
