The Peoples Democratic Movement is today welcoming the announcement by United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) totaling some 260 Million US dollars in funding.
We remind all the voters and stakeholders in the Turks and Caicos Islands that the current financial condition was inherited by the Interim Administration and that new revenue and expenditure measures were inevitable after a devastating period of financial chaos in governance by the Progressive National Party (PNP) where much of what the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands had worked so hard for over the years was squandered and then compounded with the international economic downturn. The announcement today by the Governor’s office of a package of financial support for the TCI is good news and a great and bold step towards pulling the TCI Government and our people out of a period of uncertainty.
As we move closer towards detailing how these funds are to be spent we again call on the Interim Administration to keep our people at the forefront of all decisions: remembering that government employees should now be assured of their monthly and weekly paychecks in order to meet living expenses, landlords can be paid back rents due, students scholarship fees can be met and unpaid Government bills can be funded.
We further renew our call made yesterday to the Interim administration to stimulate the economy and repair much needed public infrastructure such as the Middle Caicos causeway, the Millennium highway in Blue Hills, the Airport Terminal in South Caicos and the damage caused to the Ona Glinton Primary school in Grand Turk.
Upon receiving the news Leader Douglas Parnell sent an email to top party brass which read:
“Let us press on toward the mark of restoring our country’s solid standing in the region by rebuilding confidence in the Turks and Caicos Islands. One of the ways we can do this is by speaking positively and insisting that our God given right to grow and prosper and aspire to build a better tomorrow for our children is never forgotten by those in authority. We must move closer, even during interim administration, toward fulfilling this vision in our homeland. To supporters of our Great Party, we remind you that we promised our people after the last General Elections that even though we only received 43 percent of the vote that we would act as though we always represent 100 percent of the people.”
We congratulate all those in the Ministry of Finance and throughout the service who worked hard in making sure that accurate information was gathered to support the request for funding. We now further request that the true state of the financial condition of the Government over the past years be made public for all to see how matters were handled, so that the truth about what this Interim Administration inherited can be made known.
We also thank our former Chief Minister Derek Taylor, Samuel Harvey and Clarence Selver both former deputy Chief Ministers for accompanying the Leader of the party, Douglas Parnell, on trips to the United Kingdom to help make the political case for capital and financial support to those in DFID and at the FCO.
We have consistently called for greater financial assistance from the UK to help the TCI people cope with its dire financial circumstances, the latest call came in October when earlier estimates were increased from 122 million to 175 million.
