St Helena : St Helena Executive Council Meeting 06/03/08
Submitted by Saint Helena Herald (Juanita Brock) 10.03.2008 (Article Archived on 24.03.2008)
Many of you will know that Matt Young and Kedell Worboys, both directors of the Saint Helena Line that is responsible to SHG for the management of the RMS, have been visiting us.
ST HELENA EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MEETING
This was a relatively brief EXCO, but it was preceded by the second part of a long info LEGCO.
Many of you will know that Matt Young and Kedell Worboys, both directors of the Saint Helena Line that is responsible to SHG for the management of the RMS, have been visiting us.
They came at my invitation to help our understanding of the present situation surrounding our much loved ship. The ship is incurring an increasing deficit in spite of a £3m DFID funding package, and the projections for the next financial year are of a much increased loss. Investigations as to the reason behind this all reach the same conclusion, it is due to the very large increase in the cost of fuel, and that is a world-wide phenomenon outside of our control. About three weeks’ ago I asked Councillors to consider significant increases in the fares and the fuel surcharge. They were unwilling to respond until all their questions were answered, and that is why we have had the two directors here.
A detailed examination of the accounts shows that a great deal has been done over the past two years or so to improve the efficiency of the RMS, and this has helped to hide the rising fuel cost. During the two meetings with Councillors Matt was able to answer a wide range of questions about options for yet further savings. Issues surrounding the structure of the company, Andrew Weir’s involvement, the schedule, stevedoring, maintenance and capital projects were all aired – some of them many times. The end result was that we were all far better informed about the issues, but we were unable to find any particular ways of saving the kind of sum of money we needed.
So that brings me to the first paper on the EXCO agenda. For once all of the EXCO items were closed to the public because they involved sensitive financial issues. This first paper dealt with the rise in fares and fuel surcharge that is necessary to enable us to balance the budget for the RMS. The decision to advise me that the required rises should be implemented was unanimous, but Councillors were clear that this was made with great reluctance. The exposure to all the facts had led us to an inevitable but unwelcome conclusion, and that is that nobody, even here on a remote island, can be protected completely from the staggering rise in energy costs. It is only fair to say that there was at least one, if not more, LEGCO-only Councillors who felt that we still hadn’t investigated deeply enough, and that person made it clear that they couldn’t support any recommendation for an increase. However I am convinced that further subsidy is out of the question, and without this rise we would have to find funding from elsewhere in our budget – that would mean those who do not have the privilege of travel on the RMS would end up subsidising those who do! The only silver lining to this cloud is that because we used the fuel surcharge mechanism for most of the increase, the fares can go down again if the cost of oil reduces. Councillors were also receptive to the idea that this kind of decision should not necessarily be a political one, and that will be the subject of a new paper to Council in the near future.
The actual increments will come into effect from voyage 113; that is the one leaving Portland on 26th of this month. They will be a percentage rise for passengers and freight of 3.51% (representing inflation) and a rise from a surcharge of 7.39% to 14.46%. The overall impact will be that fares and freight costs rise by about 10%.
The next item was the culmination of a lengthy process in the drafting of the Immigration Control Bill. EXCO agreed to advise that this bill should now be published and will proceed to consultation.
We then considered the Healthlink 3 project. As many of you know NI-CO provide our health sector with necessary skills as part of Healthlink 2. This new project builds on the progress made during Healthlink 2 and is different in so far as the development aspect of the health sector will be funded separately by SHG/Public Health and Social Services having direct access to development funding through DFID. This will allow the implementation of a Health Development Strategy as well as providing us with more autonomy of action.
We then considered the order paper for the forthcoming LEGCO. I have been critical of the nature of some of the questions in the past, and I could be accused of inconsistency if I didn’t say that there are some rather obtuse ones this time. Nevertheless I am sure we all welcome the freedom of expression that LEGCO brings to our politicians.
We also reviewed Undertakings Given and Resolutions Made at the last Legislative Council and finally we considered a paper that dealt with a method of ensuring that the SHELCO development contains all the necessary constraints that we would wish.
This was a hard working session and I once again had to admire the dedication and thoroughness with which some very complex issues were grasped.
AMG
6th March 2008
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