St Helena : St Helena - EXCO REPORT 41 – 15 December 2009
Submitted by Saint Helena Herald (Public Relations Information Office) 19.12.2009 (Article Archived on 16.01.2010)
As Councillor Gunnell has not been able to return yet from the OTCC Conference, Brian Isaac continued to deputise for him. The other four EXCO Councillors – Tara Thomas, Rodney Buckley, Tony Green and Mervyn Yon were present. Also attending was Desmond Wade who is Acting as Financial Secretary following Ginny Grace’s departure.
EXCO REPORT 41 – 15 December 2009
As Councillor Gunnell has not been able to return yet from the OTCC Conference, Brian Isaac continued to deputise for him. The other four EXCO Councillors – Tara Thomas, Rodney Buckley, Tony Green and Mervyn Yon were present. Also attending was Desmond Wade who is Acting as Financial Secretary following Ginny Grace’s departure.
The first Paper before us was dealing with the recommendation from Councillor Derek Thomas, holder of the Home and International portfolio, that an interim additional payment be made to those who are defined as being in need. Councillors are rightly concerned with those in the community who have been seriously affected by the relentless inflation of recent months that has caused higher costs in the shops. A Welfare Benefits Adviser will be joining us early in the New Year and will be refreshing our awareness of the poverty line and recommending a major revision of the existing benefits system. A similar thing is happening in the public service with a review of the whole pay structure and system that hopefully will be introduced in April. However we are all aware of the particular pressures at this time of year and agreed that a one off additional payment of £20 will be made to those who already receive Income Related Benefits as well as to those who are currently classified as Long-Term Unemployed and Single Mothers. This payment does not set any precedent because the upcoming review will take all relevant needs in to account for the future.
In looking then at the minutes of the last meeting we picked up on actions that had been taken including my own meeting with Small Businesses and aspects of the RMS schedule that have been extensively aired by an ever growing barrage of emails between various parties.
We then had our annual view of the accounts of the Bank of St.Helena. As this government is the lender of last resort, the affairs of the Bank are of more than passing significance to us, and we were pleased to see a substantial improvement in the profit performance of the Bank over the past year.
The next matter has been asked for by Councillors for quite a long time and this was a paper that discussed the possibility of Heads of Department being placed on time constrained contracts rather than having what might be construed as a job for life. There have been criticisms voiced of a blocking of younger ambition and of the possibility of sterility within SHG at this level. The paper itself ended up recommending that a professional Performance Management structure would be a far better option that term contracts. This solution is one that should be installed anyway as part of our ongoing PSMP work in the previously mentioned Pay and Grading Structure study. Councillors wisely decided to leave the matter until that particular issue comes forward for discussion next year.
We then had a paper on the media. This was the outcome of our deliberations on this topic at our previous meeting. At that time we had concluded that we felt that both organisations should be encouraged but that overlap should be discouraged where we believed it is costing the public additional money in one form or another. Officers had put together the advice of Councillors from that occasion and the following principles were recommended and I agreed with them:
Advertising requires far more specific definition. All Members felt that News Media Services were in fact often advertising for free and that this creates an imbalance on the so called “level playing field”.
The Board of News Media Services, which has fulfilled its present role with dignity, should be reinforced and strengthened.
The draft Media Bill for regulating the media and establishing an independent body to consider complaints should be taken forward.
The Media Board should seek increased efficiency in the running of News Media Services and any advertising by government in their media should be replicated in the private sector organisation.
It was felt that the above moves would help to stabilise the present situation and enable the further development of our media.
I then was able to share with Honourable Members information regarding today’s Ministerial Statement about the airport. I had a telephone conversation with the Minister Mike Foster yesterday evening and he was at pains to point out the ongoing commitment of DfID to the provision of access to the island. He mentioned once again the wording of a previous DfID promise of “first call” and “reasonable needs”. He was also full of praise for the way that the consultation was handled and he seemed satisfied with the fact that the result represented a true picture of the strength of differing opinions.
As those of you who are aware of the statement will realise the pause has not come to an end, but is to be continued for a period said to be six months in which two distinct possibilities will be thoroughly investigated:
Time has moved on since the airport was first planned and improvements in aircraft design and possible adaptation in what may be approved internationally could lead to a shorter runway being possible. This could be significantly cheaper, also –
A private sector organisation, Pall Mall Consult, has put forward various ways in which private sector funding could be introduced alongside public money in what is known as a Public Private Partnership, abbreviated to PPP. Pall Mall also came up with some interesting ideas on new sources of income from the presence of an airport here. Their proposal is that such new funding could be sufficient to generate private investment thus not detracting in any way from the return to the island through the increase in overall economic activity.
Although there are doubts about the practicality of some of the new income sources I do not doubt that these two possibilities both have merit and are worthy of further thought. Indeed if both were to be shown as probable it could well reduce the DfID investment to a far lower figure. However I do not doubt that such study will indeed take a fair amount of time.
The Minister told me that civil servants would continue to work on these ideas right through the pre General Election period and he implied that a new government in the UK, of whatever party, could well see that activity through to a finish.
So what are we to make of all that? One Councillor said that it was good because it wasn’t a “no”. I share that view because I feel that the case for an airport is so strong that it will never die. We will have an airport here eventually and we do not have to be as young as our youngest Councillor to anticipate living long enough to see it. The six month boundary to this latest delay does at least place another marker down and I am sure that those who represent us will be using that time to continue to press the case, especially to those who will make, or can influence, a decision.
The next item was quickly dealt with as I distributed a matrix indicating how the new Portfolio Committees might be constituted. I know of at least one such Committee that has had its first meeting and the system will be able to start up fully in January.
There being no further business the meeting closed at 1 pm
Andrew Gurr
Governor
15th December 2009
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