St Helena : St Helena EXCO REPORT – 13th July 2010
Submitted by Saint Helena Herald (Public Relations Information Office) 19.07.2010 (Article Archived on 02.08.2010)
All Members were present at today’s meeting and Gilly Francis stood in once again as Acting Chief Secretary.
EXCO REPORT – 13th July 2010
All Members were present at today’s meeting and Gilly Francis stood in once again as Acting Chief Secretary.
There was really only one item on the agenda and you may feel that the meeting would be brief for that reason. However, the plain fact is that there is so much going on at the moment within government that both Matters Arising and Any Other Business take up a considerable amount of time.
I began by speaking to the Council about how business is progressed through the government system. We want that progress to be optimal – not so fast that error will be made, but equally not so slow that little gets done. The normal passage of business is now through the Council Committees, but I indicated that officers would bring urgent matters directly to EXCO if that was considered necessary.
The single substantive item was a memorandum regarding magistrates and the possible need to appoint a full time one. The idea has been around for some time and most of those involved in the law agree that a permanent lawyer who could act as a Resident Judge and carry out training of our existing magistrates would be a great asset. Councillors agreed with that conclusion and although the suggested name was Senior Magistrate as distinct from District Judge, we all felt that Resident Judge would be more accurate in describing the role.
EXCO were keen to emphasise that this person must be independent of government and should be seen to be so. There are many other functions within the island that require a truly independent approach and, as the finance for the position has already been approved in the current budget, there was little hesitation in deciding that the recommendation should now go forward to structured consultation.
We then considered the minutes of the previous meeting and their Matters Arising. The minutes ran to 16 pages and 41 items. Our new tracker document was of considerable help in identifying what has been done over the past two weeks as well as what remains for action.
The changes brought about by the recent Pay and Grading re-alignment were discussed in the light of a report I had received from the Director of Finance, Tony Kilner. The situation is that once the current appeals process has been completed, we will have a structure within which we will be able to operate the civil service with fair and equitable remuneration for all employees. I realise that there are those who are very happy with their new remuneration, which inevitably means that others will not be quite so content, and it would be misleading of me to suggest that the new system is perfect. But when we are able to take full advantage of the appraisals and assessments that are all part of the system, then we will have a pay and grading structure that is both modern and fit for purpose.
Previous discussion about the possibility of a pre-OTCC (Overseas Territories Consultative Committee), with Councillors from Ascension, the Falklands and Tristan enabled me to relate that during a conference in London last week, I had a teleconference with the Governor of the Falklands, and the Administrators of both Ascension and Tristan, as well as the sponsoring FCO. I think all of those taking part felt that the time spent was beneficial and the topics worthy of further consideration. The obvious question was “How can we work together more effectively for our mutual benefit?” The kind of subjects covered were: mutual investment opportunities, sport, dealing with external organisations such as the MOD and Cable & Wireless, fishing and tourism marketing.
Under AOB we heard about the analysis of the oil seeping from the Darkdale. Apparently the match is with Iranian Light Crude. I am not certain as to whether that progresses our problem any further, but the MOD is still looking into the possibilities of helping with the dispersal, or indeed removal, of the oil. The accounts up until the end of June were presented and showed that we were lagging behind in income and rather overspent as well. At this stage of the financial year that is not a particular worry.
I indicated that we are renewing our efforts to find a suitable location for Councillors to meet each other, deal with members of the public and attend to their day to day administration. I was also able to announce that our new rescue boat is currently being built and should be with us by Christmas.
You will remember that the decision on the pricing of fuel has now been passed over to a formula rather than politicians having to make different judgements every time that there is a visit from a tanker. The last tanker visit will have the effect of increasing prices at the pump, but as soon as we get one that does the reverse, then the prices will come down.
The final item was a very brief consideration of an early draft of a slightly reorganised government structure. I started the meeting with a comment on how we needed to optimise how we do our business; we ended with looking at how we might optimise our structure so that we get the best value for taxpayers’ money.
This was a helpful EXCO and finished at 1.30 pm.
Andrew Gurr
Governor
13th July 2010
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