UK won’t outrightly tell BVI to cut public service but they’ve hinted it
The BVI‘s political leader has said he believes that although it is not explicitly stated, the UK wants the territory to drastically reduce its public service.
Addressing the House of Assembly recently, Premier Andrew Fahie said the UK’s intention of a chop to the BVI’s public service is suggested in the conditions of the £300 million loan guarantee Britain has offered for hurricane recovery.
The Premier said the loan guarantee is something the territory wants but the BVI remains concerned about the conditions attached to the offer; even as dialogue on the matter is ongoing.
He said if the BVI was to stray outside of the proposed borrowing ratios attached to those conditions, the UK would become empowered to automatically approve all future budgets.
And if the UK were to take control of the BVI‘s budget, Fahie said some numbers or percentages of debt-to-income ratios that were suggested in passing conversation would only be feasible if the BVI would cut the largest section of its recurrent budget.
He then noted that the largest section of the recurrent budget was the salaries for public officers.
“So they’ll never say that you must cut public officers. You’ll never hear that. And they will say ‘we never told them that’, and they’ll be correct. But read between the lines,” the Premier urged.
He said several terms and conditions attached to the loan guarantee documents are still left to be ironed out, while others remain unclear and undefined.
He pointed to two specific terms — ‘other mechanisms’ and ‘other measures’; both of which the UK said they would reserve the right to implement at any time.
The concerned Premier said these terms could mean anything and government is reluctant to accept such a condition.
“So, you want me as a Minister of Finance to sign onto a document that is saying these kinds of conditions with other measures and other mechanisms that we don’t know the definition of them?” Fahie questioned.
Without a clear definition in place, the Premier suggested that this could mean that the UK would want him to hand over control of the BVI‘s financial services sector in the event the BVI defaults on the conditions.
The Premier said the loan guarantee is something the territory wants but the BVI remains concerned about the conditions attached to the offer; even as dialogue on the matter is ongoing.
He said if the BVI was to stray outside of the proposed borrowing ratios attached to those conditions, the UK would become empowered to automatically approve all future budgets.
And if the UK were to take control of the BVI‘s budget, Fahie said some numbers or percentages of debt-to-income ratios that were suggested in passing conversation would only be feasible if the BVI would cut the largest section of its recurrent budget.
He then noted that the largest section of the recurrent budget was the salaries for public officers.
“So they’ll never say that you must cut public officers. You’ll never hear that. And they will say ‘we never told them that’, and they’ll be correct. But read between the lines,” the Premier urged.
He said several terms and conditions attached to the loan guarantee documents are still left to be ironed out, while others remain unclear and undefined.
He pointed to two specific terms — ‘other mechanisms’ and ‘other measures’; both of which the UK said they would reserve the right to implement at any time.
The concerned Premier said these terms could mean anything and government is reluctant to accept such a condition.
“So, you want me as a Minister of Finance to sign onto a document that is saying these kinds of conditions with other measures and other mechanisms that we don’t know the definition of them?” Fahie questioned.
Without a clear definition in place, the Premier suggested that this could mean that the UK would want him to hand over control of the BVI‘s financial services sector in the event the BVI defaults on the conditions.