Falklands : Falklands Legislative Assembly End Session 28 May 2010
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 01.06.2010 (Article Archived on 15.06.2010)
The final budget session of Legislative Assembly began with Motion No. 1/2010 - Customs duties payable in respect of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco Products.
LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY END BUDGET SESSION 28 MAY 2010
Compiled by J. Brock (FINN)
The final budget session of Legislative Assembly began with Motion No. 1/2010 - Customs duties payable in respect of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco Products.
“It is resolved by the Legislative Assembly under section 113 of the Customs Ordinance No. 9 of 2003 that the Customs Order Title 26.1.2 is amended to increase the customs duties payable for Alcoholic drinks and Tobacco products as follows:
1. On Beer from 28p to 29p per litre
2. On Wine from 72p to 74p per litre
3. On fortified wines from 84p to 87p per litre
4. On Spirituous Beverages from £5.77 to £5.94 per litre
5. On Spirits from £10.54 to £10.86 per litre
6. On Cigars from £209.86 to £241.85 per kilo
7. On Cigarettes from £236.74 to £260.41 per kilo
8. On Tobacco from £141.51 to £158.96 per kilo
This amendment of the Customs Order comes into force on 29 May 2010.
Explanation by Mr Keith Padgett, Director of Corporate Resources:
Mr Speaker, Honourable members, if I could just correct one slight mistake, on Tobacco it should be £144.51 to £158.96 per kilo.
This resolution will bring into force at midnight tonight the increases in customs import duties as proposed in the budget presentation on Wednesday and I beg to move that the resolution be adopted.
The Chief Executive, Mr Tim Thorogood, seconded the Motion and there were no objections to the Motion and it passed.
The Appropriation Bill Remaining Stages:
The Director of Corporate Resources, Mr Keith Padgett, reported on the proceedings of the Select Committee on the estimates and the Appropriation Bill.
Mr Keith Padgett, Director of Corporate Resources:
Mr Speaker, Honourable members, this report covers both the Appropriation Bill and the Finance Bill referred to the Select Committee on the Estimates by this Assembly on Wednesday morning. The Select Committee met on Wednesday afternoon to conclude the budget process and the Committee’s recommendations were approved by Executive Council earlier this afternoon. They are now presented to this House for final approval.
As a result of the significant efforts already input to the budget process, a limited number of adjustments were made by the Committee. The result of these is simply to transfer amounts between individual directorates and a proposed appropriation remains unchanged at £42,414,800.00.
1. The budget deficit for next year also remains at £1Million.
2. Total Directorate Expenditure was agreed at £38.1Million which is allocated to each Directorate as follows:
a. Health, Social Services and Education, £12.3Million
b. Public Services, £8.2Million
c. Natural Resources, £6Million
d. Procurement and Efficiency, £4Million
e. Executive Management, £2.7Million
f. Corporate Resources, £2Million
g. Community Safety, £1.6Million
h. Attorney General’s Chambers, £900,000.00
i. Mineral Resources, £500,000.00
An analysis of the services provided by each department and a full breakdown of budget allocations is included in the Summary Budget booklet provided to Honourable members and will be available to the public when the full budget book is published in the next few weeks.
3. The Transfer Payment Budget remains at £4.9Million. This budget is made up of assistance to non government organisations, social payments and other programmes. In terms of the main subvention bodies, the following allocations were agreed:
a. £395,000.00 to FIDC as an operating subsidy. The Corporation has sufficient balances to fund the remainder of its approved budget.
b. £372,000.00 as a contribution to the Tourist Board to support investment in the promotion and the development of Tourism
c. £341,000.00 as an operating subsidy to FIMCO. This demonstrates the on-going commitment of this Assembly to farmers in the meat industry. However, Members are keen to ensure that the cost of proposed upgrade works is reasonable and they are all convinced of this with the figures produced so far. I will refer further to this when I discuss the Capital Programme.
d. £144,000.00 for the Media Trust to support the Falkland Islands Radio Station
e. £70,000.00 to support the Museum and National Trust
f. £67,000.00 to support the work of Falklands Conservation.
4. The following allocations were agreed to support the agricultural community:
a. £190,000.00 for the Farm Improvement Programme
b. £45,000.00 for the Agricultural Labour and Business Development Schemes
c. £38,000.00 for Transport Subsidies. This last figure represents 75% of the total transport subsidies provided this year. It’s anticipated that these subsidies will be reduced to 50% in 2011/12 and 25% the following year. The subsidies will then cease.
d. An allocation of £1.6Million os also approved for the continued operation of the Ferry and Coastal Shipping Service.
5. Full details of all the transfer payments are in the documentation provided to Honourable members and will be included in the published budget book. But some of the more significant approvals I would highlight are as follows:
a. £450,000.00 for the Holiday Credit Scheme. This represents the anticipated withdrawals during the year from balances already accrued by individuals. It should be noted that 2010/11 is the last year that these balances can be used. At the end of that year any unused balances would be forfeit.
b. £316,000.00 for Family Allowances, encompassing the withdrawal of means testing of households.
c. £270,000.00 for improved TV and radio services
d. £150,000.00 as a contribution towards Defence in the form of funding for accommodation at MPA
e. £110,000.00 to support the Pensions Board – the Falkland Islands’ pension Scheme
f. £60,000.00 for donations and subventions to support Youth, sports and other charitable organisations
g. £50,000.00 to finance the work of the Public Accounts Committee.
No amendments were made to the Fund Transfers Budget of just under £3.9Million. These are transfers from one FIG fund to another with a main transfer being the transfer of £3.5Million to the Capital Equalisation Fund to support the Capital Programme. The Committee made just one adjustment to the Capital Programme which originally contained the full projected costs of phases 2 to 4 of the Abattoir upgrade works. As I previously stated, Members are keen to ensure that capital costs are reasonable so the capital provision was amended.
a. A revised estimate for phase 2 remains in the programme
b. No provision is currently included for phases 3 and 4.
1. This does not imply that Members don’t see these works as important. It simply reflects the fact that, until accurate and reasonable figures are available, it would be unwise to include them. Further reports to Executive Council will be required to address this. And as a result, the revised capital programme for 2010/11 now totals £10,064,100.00
2. The Capital programme now includes allocations for the following economic categories of expenditure:
a. £1Million for loans and investments
b. £1.15Million for Plant and Vehicles. This includes the replacements required for the whole of the Government fleet and the partial replacement and reallocation of the Asphalt Plant
c. £1.35Million for Roads to cover work on Camp and Stanley Roads and completion of the Onion Range Road for the MOD, which will be reimbursed.
d. £1.25Million for Government land and buildings, which includes the Abattoir improvements already mentioned, the relocation of the Fisheries Department from wholly unsuitable offices on FIPASS and other building and landscaping schemes.
e. £4.4Million for Municipal services, which includes several infrastructure related schemes including schemes relating to water and electricity supplies and sewerage disposal. It also includes the potential construction of a wind farm to provide electricity to MPA
f. £200,000.00 as a provision for further works and investigations regarding the location for the potential new port
g. £1Million for the improvement and replacement of various departmental assets including medical equipment, replacement breathing apparatus for the Fire and Rescue Service and oil spill response equipment. It also includes provision for works to improve the shore-side container facilities at FIPASS.
The Select Committee approved all proposals on revised taxes, fees and charges. I can also report that the Committee approved the proposals on revised pension contributions, social payments and allowances. Therefore all the provisions of the Finance Bill to implement those revisions where appropriate were approved.
Although for reasons I mentioned on Wednesday we have not been able to produce a balanced budget, I believe that a reasonable balance has been struck between expenditure across the full range of service provision, economic development and capital investment.
A paper summarising the adjustments made to the draft estimates by the Select Committee was presented to Executive Council earlier this afternoon. I can now report that Executive Council recommends that the legislative Assembly approve the necessary amendments to the Appropriation Bill to accommodate those adjustments.
Once again, I would like to thank all that were involved in the Budget process this year.
Mr Speaker this concludes my report of the proceedings of the Select Committee on the 2010/11 estimates. Thank you.
The Hon Mr Roger Edwards:
Mr Speaker, I move that the report be accepted.
The Hon Mr Gavin Short:
Mr Speaker, I would like to second the motion.
The Appropriation Bill went through all of its normal stages and was passed.
The Finance Bill 2010:
Mr Keith Padgett, Director of Corporate Resources:
My report was covered by the earlier presentation, Mr Speaker. I would just like to confirm that Select Committee approved the provisions contained in the Bill, as I said earlier, without amendment.
The Hon Mr Roger Edwards:
Mr Speaker, I move that the report be accepted.
The Hon Mr Gavin Short:
Mr Speaker, I wish to second the Motion.
The Motion to accept the report was carried and the Bill went through all the normal stages and was passed.
The Complaints Commissioner Bill 2010:
The Hon Chief Executive Mr Tim Thorogood:
Mr Speaker, thank-you. Mr Speaker this Bill arises from the provision in Section 9 of the Constitution, which specified that the Governor may appoint a complaints commissioner and that the functions, powers and jurisdictions of such commissioner shall be defined in an ordinance. There has been public information and consultation on the content of this Bill led by the Attorney General during January to March this year. And provisions of the Bill have taken account of some of those observations that were made.
I will not attempt to give a section by section detailed guide to the Bill. Such an outline is contained in the “objects and reasons” section. But I will just remind the Assembly of the main points.
The Bill enables the Governor to appoint a principle complaints commissioner at his discretion. The core function of the commissioner is to investigate complaints of mal-administration across the public service. The exact body to which this applies is given in schedule 1. This function includes Members of the Assembly in so far as the complaint relates to their conduct when compared to the standing orders of the Assembly, or to matters of personal interest.
However, complaints may only be considered by the commissioner once the internal complaints procedures have been exhausted. A complaint is made in writing to a MLA, unless it is a complaint about an MLA, in which case it is to the Speaker of this Assembly. Normally a complaint needs to be made within 3 months of the incident to which it relates. However, if the complaint is not then forwarded to the principle complaints commissioner the complainant may forward that complaint to the Governor, who can then also determine whether to send it to the principle complaints commissioner.
Normally the principle complaints commissioner will then investigate the complaint. But the Governor may, from time to time, decide that another commissioner be appointed to look at the complaint, for example, if the principle complaints commissioner might have some involvement in the complaint.
The complaints commissioner is given wide discretion in how he or she might conduct the investigation, though he or she must inform the body or person being complained about, and consider the response.
The commissioner will produce a report in which the validity of the complaint is determined and can make recommendations including about compensation. However, these are not binding on the body concerned.
The Governor has the ability to prevent the publication of any section of the report which might damage the public interest.
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