Social Insecurity

At Last! The 2003 Accounts.

I recently received a message that the long overdue Social Security Annual Report for the year 2003 has been published. I had a look at the website. The letter of transmittal and other reports are undated. We have to assume that the Minister received the Report when it was published, in August 2007. I would have thought this was a tad in arrears for a Social Security Board?

My correspondent was not impressed. He sent me a query he had received recently. I shall publish his response at a later date. This is what the query he received said:

We finally get to see the Social Security Annual Report for 2003. As expected, it is not very revealing. How much does Tim earn? You tell me:

6. ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENDITURE	2003 $$	2002 $$
Salaries & Allowances of Admin staff	1,577,200	1,408,037
Allowances & Expenses of the Board	139,257	140,801
Other Expenses of Administration	1,402,705	1,654,122
Other Expenses	89,083	76,110
Total	3,208,245	3,279,070

This trough has room for countless snouts.

They have over $14 million in a Smith Barney account. In 2002 it lost over $3.5 million. Madre de Dios!

They own an unstated number of vehicles, having a total depreciated value of $69,000+ at the beginning of 2003. I don't know what they cost, or how many of them are devoted to Tim's "official" use.

They spend, very roughly, $4 million a year to give out $3 million in benefits. This does not include the Development Fund.

The Development Fund gave a $100,000 grant to the Jazz Festival.

What else do you see here that might interest Don? He has a somewhat limited fascination for financial statements.

Is this what they call a faith based initiative?

Yours faithfully etc,

I know that Director Tim Hodge honestly believes that Social Security is transparent and likety-splick clean. However, the Social Security fund is one of the largest honey pots of potential for misuse on the island. There must be few funds, other than the government’s total income housed in the Consolidated Fund and the entire asset base of one of our major banks, that are larger than the public monies held in trust by the Social Security Board. To this end, the Board must expect that its accounts will be subject to the most stringent examination and analysis. Tim is an old friend of mine. But, old friendships must not be permitted to stand in the way of rigorous examination of the accountability of the Board for the funds upon which future generations of employees must depend. The Social Security Board has no shareholders meeting to face questions. It is all the more incumbent on them to provide us with the fullest details of where our money is invested and what is being done with it.

I have to agree with my correspondent that the explanation of administrative costs published on Social Security's website, no matter how acceptable it is to the accounting profession, should not be acceptable to us here in Anguilla. Later, my correspondent's response to the above letter.