Montserrat 10

The draft Montserrat Constitution does not entrench an Interests Commissioner.  Section 106 provides at best a hope that there will be a continuing Interests Commissioner and an effective Integrity in Public Life Act, after it comes into effect.  This is not satisfactory. 

The Constitution should entrench the office and make it clear that the provisions are to apply to all members of the Legislature, the Cabinet, Statutory Boards and Committees, and their immediate families.  The disclosures to be made by public officers should not be secret.  They should be public, and failures to obey the law should be subject to serious penalties. 

Integrity, accountability and transparency require this.

Montserrat 8

There are other objectionable provisions in the draft Constitution that are familiar to us in Anguilla.  The section 51 restriction on Montserratians who have travelled, and been so lucky and enterprising as to have acquired a second passport, from being able to be nominated and elected to the Legislature is most objectionable.  It repeats the provision in the old Constitution.  One would have thought that preparing a brand new Constitution would have been the opportunity to remove such an anachronism.  It should form no part of a modern Overseas Territory Constitution.

Section 81 and the following sections set up a Public Service Commission, but it is a powerless institution.  It has the right to consult only on public service appointments and on matters of discipline.

No FCO-appointed Governor or his deputy should have total power over the appointment and discipline of public servants in a British Overseas Territory.  He should be obliged to follow the advice of a PSC, except, perhaps, for the highest ranks, where consultation with the Chief Minister might be appropriate.  Similarly for teachers and the police force. 

I note that section 84 expresses a hope that one day a Public Service Act might one day be passed that will oblige the Governor to act on the advice of the PSC.  Such a hope is not good enough.  The Constitution should require it to be done.

Service Commissions

Service Commissions:  The second guarantee of transparency in the government of a British Overseas Territory (BOT) is the existence of constitutionally guaranteed, independent, Service Commissions.  In the smaller BOTs of the West Indies, all appointments to the public service, the teaching service, and the police service, are by our Constitutional provisions in the hands of one person.  That is the Governor.  He delegates this responsibility to a local Deputy Governor.  Both of them carry out their responsibilities with no accountability to anyone.  In a properly regulated, democratic BOT the Governor or Deputy Governor would be required to act on the advice of the Service Commissions.

The reason for that constitutional development is obvious.  A Governor whose powers of appointment to the public service is unrestrained will of necessity have to rely on his cronies and advisers.  He will have no personal knowledge of the individuals and characters whose public service come up before him for a ruling.  His local deputy will be related to half the local population and have grown up with most of the others.  Under such a system, no matter how well-intentioned, the public will not accept that there is transparency and fairness in public service appointments.  This is a classic case of government by man rather than by law. Such appointments and related matters should instead be constitutionally placed in the hands of a local, professional, and independent Public Service Commission, governed by appropriate laws and regulations.

It is unfortunate that the corrupt and perverse regime that has been permitted by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to run our sister BOT of the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) has given Kate Sullivan, the FCO legal adviser, the opportunity to recommend, in her recently-released draft recommendations, clawing back from that unfortunate BOT some of the elements of self-government that had only recently been granted, and repositioning them in the hands of either the Governor or the Secretary of State.  No doubt, that reactionary step is well-deserved in the TCI.  God knows they have blotted their own copy-book often and badly enough. 

We can only hope that in the more sensible, better-regulated territories of Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Virgin Islands, Anguilla and Montserrat, no such retrograde step is contemplated.  Such an undeserved development would be an outrage of unacceptable proportions.

Related Posts:

Police Reform

The PSC

Public Service Commission

Appointments

Appointments Commission:  Following on from the last few posts, the fourth feature we would expect to find in a system of government that boasts integrity in the public service is an Appointments’ Commission.  Such a Commission would vet political appointments to boards and committees.  It would be protected by the Constitution and by legislation and would be independent of political interference.

At present in our territories we have a “winner takes all” system of appointments to boards, committees and commissions.  Immediately a new government is elected, their first order of business is to share out the various directorships among the principal supporters of the new ministers.  We watch them, at every change of administration, as they dismantle the Social Security Board, the Public Utilities Board, the Public Health Board, the Tourist Board, the Carnival Committee, even the Poor Law Board.  We say they are “enjoying the fruits of office”.  This makes a mockery of the whole notion of good governance.  The public generally accepts this process as a normal state of affairs, but they sneer under their breath at all politicians. 

This unregulated system has got to be stopped.  Why can we not take a leaf out of the British book and have all appointments vetted by an independent, constitutionally protected body, to ensure that Ministers appoint only qualified persons to these positions?  If the objection is cost, we can combine these duties with those of the Ombudsman or someone similar.

Related Posts:

Inquiry Coming

Checks & Balances

Special Assistants 12   

Tragedies

The TCI Journal is my hero. I try to read the TCI Journal every day. Each daily exposure is for a West Indian what the cathartic effect must have been in old Athens of attending one of the tragedies of Sophocles. One leaves the pages of the Journal drained of all emotion, conscious only that it is good to be alive and living in a different place. I do not know how I could keep my sanity if I had to put up with what the people of the TCI are going through. They are my second set of heroes.

Just today, I was looking at the several items published on 4 June. I have to urge you to read them yourselves to see what I am talking about.

I started with a letter from W Hurd on Freedom of the Press. His quotations ably illustrated the points he was making. I was particularly struck by Adlai Stephenson’s “My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.”

John Hartley’s Letter from London reminded us how the political crisis now playing out in London may affect the liberties of the people of the TCI, and us in Anguilla too, for that matter.

Diana de Gara’s heart rending call for Patience took my breath away, as all her writing inevitably does.

And then I read Shawn Malcolm’s account of the proceedings in the Supreme Court yesterday. Some 15 lawyers from London were presenting applications by two of the foreigners who were mentioned by Sir Robin Auld as possibly being implicated in paying bribes to Premier Michael Missick. They are trying to stop the Auld Report from being published. They claim that Sir Robin’s remit from the Governor was only to investigate politicians. He had no business mentioning their clients’ names. As Mr Malcolm points out, it is difficult to see how Sir Robin could have detailed the reports of bribes paid to politicians if he did not mention who is alleged to have paid the bribes.

May they all burn in eternal hellfire.

Congo

There are two web pages I want you to read. One is a judgment of the High Court in Anguilla in relation to how the Attorney-General’s Chambers handled the case against Joe Brice. The A-G’s Chambers were representing Niguel Streete. He is the Director of the Anguilla Financial Services Commission. The Commission is the offshore industry watchdog for Anguilla. The judgment is only three pages long. Read it and weep. If you need any explanation for any part of it, let me know. After you have finished reading, tell me which of you would want the A-G’s Chambers representing you in a dog bite case.

The second web page, titled Undue Diligence, belongs to Global Witness. It concerns the case of Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso. He is the son of the President of the Republic of Congo. He stands accused of stealing the oil wealth of the citizens of Congo. He used an Anguillian company, Long Beach, to do some of his embezzlements. [This report is very long. Use the search feature to find the bits that mention Anguilla.]

Global Witness is an international NGO established in 1993. It works to break the links between natural resource exploitation, conflict, poverty, corruption, and human rights abuses worldwide. This is a story of corruption in high places in Congo. My concern is how the events revealed affect Anguilla. The connection with Anguilla is the entities ICS Trust and ICS International. These are Hong Kong based company formation agents. Orient Investments is part of ICS. Orient Investments set up Long Beach in Anguilla. It held the shares in Long Beach in trust for Nguesso.

In addition to being the President’s son, Nguesso is also responsible for marketing Congo’s oil. He opened a bank account at one of Hong Kong’s largest banks. He had some of the proceeds of Congo’s oil sales deposited to it. He had his personal credit card bills paid from it. He stole millions. He squandered the proceeds on designer shopping in Paris and elsewhere. The UK High Court ruled in 2007 that Nguesso and his company were “unsavoury and corrupt”.

Up to now, the story is the usual one of private greed and public loss. An Anguillian company had been set up for the most despicable and corrupt of reasons: the rape and pillage of an impoverished nation’s resources. Anguilla’s connection might appear at most to be peripheral. The real shame comes when we learn that as far back as 2007 Global Witness wrote to Niguel Streete alerting him to this international fraud. We learn that Mr Streete assured Global Witness that he was dealing with the matter. It appears that it took a full year for Mr Streete to do anything at all. The best he could do, after repeated prodding, was to strike Long Beach off the Register of Companies in July 2008. This action is generally accepted as the administrative equivalent of sweeping the dust under the carpet while shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.

Nguesso’s exploitation of his people by the use of an Anguillian vehicle is a problem. The solution is for the local regulators and industry representatives to vehemently condemn this abuse of our facilities, and then to take whatever action they can to demonstrate that such conduct will not be acceptable.

Has Anguilla signed legislation making corruption elsewhere in the world an offence in Anguilla?

Anguilla’s company management laws make it compulsory for offshore providers to perform due diligence on prospective clients. Has there been a breach of this law? If there has been, what action needs to be taken?

Why did it take a full year from the time Mr Streete was alerted to the fraud for him to take even this lame and ineffectual action?

Does Mr Streete plan any further action against Orient Investments?

Will disciplinary action be brought against ICS if any is justified?

What is the Anguilla Financial Services Association doing to ensure that international bandits are not permitted to mis-use our jurisdiction?

How ready are we to confront and reassure the coming CFATF, and IMF, and Michael Foot’s review visits and assessments that will take place in the next few weeks?

Failure by Mr Streete’s office to proceed diligently and firmly in this matter will most likely result in further serious damage to Anguilla’s reputation.

Does Mr Streete have any other lawyer representing him besides the A-G’s Chambers? If not, I strongly recommend he find one. He needs competent legal advice.

Let me say that I have not researched Orient Investments. I have no idea who the local agent is. She might be my mother, for all I know. For the purposes of this post, it matters not.

And, finally, for any concern that this post will damage Anguilla’s offshore financial services industry, the answer is that the damage has already been done. These publications I refer to are out there in the public domain. It will only take one of our competitors, the financial services sectors of London or New York perhaps, to bring the story to the attention of Reuters or AP.

Suspension

A sad day for the British Overseas Territories. It is a sad day for all of us when the UK has to suspend the constitution of a British Overseas Territory such as Anguilla is. The Minister announced she was doing just that for the Turks and Caicos Islands in a written statement in Parliament yesterday. And, this modern constitution is barely two years old.

The Minister wrote in part:

I wish to inform the House that on 16 March 2009 the Governor of the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) published the interim report of the Commissioner, the right hon. Sir Robin Auld (http://www.tci-inquiry.org/interim_report.html).

The Commissioner states that the written information obtained in the first six months of the Commission’s inquiries, when coupled with the evidence in the public hearings in TCI earlier this year, have provided information in abundance pointing to a high probability of systemic corruption or serious dishonesty. In his view this, together with “clear signs of political amorality and immaturity and of general administrative incompetence, have demonstrated a need for urgent suspension in whole or in part of the constitution and for other legislative and administrative reforms”, and change in other related matters.

In light of the accumulation of evidence in relation to TCI in the last year or so, and fortified by the Commissioner’s interim report, the Government have formed the view that parts of the constitution will need to be suspended and have decided to take steps to enable it to do so. I am today making available on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) website a draft Order in Council prepared by the FCO which would suspend parts of the constitution, including those relating to ministerial Government and the House of Assembly, initially for two years, although this period could be extended or shortened. The draft order will be submitted to Her Majesty in Council at a meeting on 18 March. If made, the order will be laid before Parliament on 25 March. Unless the Commissioner’s final report significantly changes our current assessment of the situation, the order will be brought into force after the final report is received. However, the order could be brought into force sooner if circumstances arose in the territory prior to that date which justified suspending relevant parts of the constitution. This intervention is for an interim period only.

We in Anguilla have to be thankful that there is no evidence here of the sort of widespread corruption that Sir Robin Auld uncovered in TCI. The principal difference between our two countries is that in Anguilla government has little or no Crown land to dispose of at personal profit to Ministers. In TCI, by comparison, most of the territory appears to have been made up of Crown land. They ploughed fertile furrows through the islands. The transcript of the evidence taken reveals the multitude of devices TCI politicians used to make money from dealing in the public’s land. Who knows where we in Anguilla would be today if we too had had large tracts of Crown land waiting to be disposed of?

What is it, by comparison, if our Ministers occasionally overrule the Planning Department and permit a favoured individual to build a restaurant or a beach bar on the public beach? They overrule the Planning Department for favourites in much more fundamental ways every week. They call it “being sensitive to the needs of the poor Anguillians”, and they get away with it in the eyes of trusting and gullible Anguillians.

What if the Minister is charmed by the young, attractive Dominicana into writing a personal letter addressed to one of the more vulnerable restaurateurs on the island, requesting him to give her a job without the work permit she so obviously requires? That is the Minister being sympathetic to the needs of poor Anguillians, isn’t it? Although, as one restaurant owner complained to me, “Why is it he never sends me young men, only young girls?” Anyway, as one Immigration official told me, “We stopped him doing that.”

What if the Ministers pad out the Boards of statutory corporations with political supporters and hangers on? They all need a job, don’t they? This is being sensitive to the needs of poor Anguillians. As if turning the Board of the Health Authority of Anguilla into a virtual sub-committee of the local Masonic Lodge is somehow a shining example of transparency and accountability! In my opinion, it is exactly the opposite to being sensitive to the needs of poor Anguillians.

So what if there is no binding Code of Conduct for Ministers. They had one in the TCI, and, as it was purely voluntary, it did not help one bit.

So what if we in Anguilla have no Integrity Commission. They had one in the TCI, and, as it had no teeth, it did not help one bit.

So what if the Chief Auditor has given our public accounts a failing grade year after year? Not even the Opposition in the House of Assembly has ever asked a single question about the misspending revealed.

Inappropriate interference in and by-passing of statutory regulatory bodies has, over the years, become the norm. The granting of exemptions, waivers and discounts in the areas of aliens landholding licence fees, customs duties, Environmental Impact Assessments, permanent residence certificates, and belongerships, are counted by all politicians in Anguilla as essential perquisites of power. The unconstrained freedom, without reference to any principle or policy, to decide when to grant and when to revoke work permits, licences, public works contracts, and franchises and monopoly concessions, adds the icing to the cake. As my Dominican friend likes to tell me, “In Anguilla, once you have the right godfather, you can do anything.”

No party when in opposition wants to change the political culture. They only want to be the ones enjoying the privileges and perks of power. No one cares that all this is equally evidence of our political amorality and immaturity, and of our general administrative incompetence.

So long as our people permit our leaders to continue to exercise power over us, with no checks or balances other than the vote every five years, things can only go from bad to worse.

TCI

Rt Hon Sir Robin Auld

Turks and Caicos Islands

Commission of Inquiry. The inquiry ordered by the Foreign Affairs Committee into allegations of corruption in the TCI government is now into its third day. The Commissioner is the Rt Hon Sir Robin Auld. The counsel to the Commission who is questioning the witnesses is Alex Milne. The Commission's website contains all the relevant information. The transcripts are posted on the TCI Journal. The transcripts are long, but make gripping reading, if you have a few hours to spare.

I read the transcript of the evidence of Premier Michael Misick on day one [only click here if you want to have the entire 103 pages to come down in .pdf format].

I read the transcript of the continuation of his evidence on day two [189 pages of transcript].

I read the transcript of the continuation of his evidence on day three [192 pages].

I read the views of several TCI commentators. They are all spitting mad with the behaviour of their Premier.

Perhaps two of the best commentaries were written on 16 January. The first is by Diana de Gara. It is an accurate analysis and summary of what we have learned from Premier Misick on day two of his testimony about his own personal finances. The second is by Shaun Malcolm. For those who want a flavour of what has transpired up to now, but find it difficult to right click on a link and choose “Open Link in New Tab”, here is what they both write:

By Diana de Gara

If day 1 did not convince anyone, then day 2 really showed what Sir Robin and Alex Milne and company have been doing during those long continuances waiting for the Inquiry. They have been setting the traps and placing the nets for Michael Misick. So far he has not tripped on the pit with the sharpened bamboo stakes—maybe that is next.

After reading the second day’s transcript I have to say I can never call this man who is still the Premier, “Honorable”. Despicable, yes. Honorable, no.

To anyone who has read this transcript, even skimmed it, or read summaries, then there can be no mistake that our Premier has robbed us blind and is still at it as we speak.

Loans

He only owes about $23 million in loans for which he makes payments, he thinks. But he’s good for these loans because he has lots of assets he didn’t disclose at first. But, now he’s complied so he’s good to go in the honesty department.

$23 million owed. He claims many in the TCI owe more and that . When asked if this is common in the TCI he said it was.

He is amassing $5,433 a DAY in accrued interest. That is more than many TCI Belongers are making in a year right given unemployment. He is unfazed by the figure. That is about $2 million a year accruing in interest per year since he doesn’t pay down the loans.

What is more interesting is he doesn’t seem to have to make payments on these loans like the rest of us mere mortals.

The Premier does not find it odd that he does not have to conform to the contract terms either.

But, there is nothing suspect about that because everyone he owes money to knows he is good for it.

So, Mike, what if you wind up in one of those black and white striped suits dragging a ball and chain behind you…like in the game Monopoly? Will they still think you are good for it then?

Is it not odd that even with the Commission of Inquiry breathing down your neck and the populace polling to have you removed, that your creditors aren’t yet worried?

Maybe that is because they really were not loans, but payments for the deals you gave them? Is it possible that these deals which smell like bribes, look like bribes and act like bribes, are, well, bribes and not loans?

You owe J&T Banka (Salt Cay Development’s major investor—go to: http://www.jtfg.com/en/news-re-2046.html ) millions, yet you have no accounts with them. You applied for and got your Black American Express card with them. They make your payments and you pay them somehow. You think it is paid by a loan through a Lichtenstien group. Mario Hoffman of Salt Cay’s DevCo hooked you up with the J&T folks in Prague.

Surprise, they own DevCo too with Mario Hoffman. Isn’t that a coincidence while the Premier just happened to be visiting in Prague?

And then we have your ministers, Floyd Hall, Jeffrey Hall and Lillian Boyce, all humble government servants, lending you $150,000.0 by Floyd, and $100,000 from the other two. Where did they get that kind of money as government officials to lend you unsecured?

Was this money to buy or keep their jobs or the price of admission to your money laundry?

PNP Salary

Did all of you loyal PNP supporters know that your hard earned contributions to support your party and activities, actually went to pay your “leader” a salary? He was supposed to be paid $10,000 a month. But since the party didn’t always have the money they paid him in lump sums when they did have it.

There aren’t any records that Mike knows of because if they gave them then the PDM would have to give theirs. And if they do have records they are locked in a room where only the pregnant, ill, out of the country Chairman (sic) has the key to the room. Sir Robin told them to get a locksmith pronto and get the records.

No leader has ever gotten a salary until he became leader and decided it was needed.

Apparently if he lives well off the PNP and his salary and looks rich, then the entire country and all its people are uplifted. It doesn’t matter that the people are unemployed, broke and living in tents in some places because there is money for hurricane relief. But they are uplifted none the less.

Credit Cards:

The Premier was asked if he ever spent say $600,000 in one month with his American Express. He couldn’t recall if he did or not. He did. And of course we have seen on the pages of the Journal in November that he and the ex-wife Lisa Ray can spend $350,000 in a month as well.

What can you spend that much money on? TCI first of course.

He apparently makes his payments in large lump sumps to the J&T Banka in Prague because they pay American Express for him. And then he pays them with his draw down loan with the Lichtenstein lenders. He has no idea why this bank pays his bill for him. Doesn’t American Express do that for everyone?

Need I say more?

Real Estate Sales

Apparently our premier is so good at managing his time and his real estate sales that he is able to do private sales outside his real estate firm. He and his good friend the Deputy Premier managed to help sell some land for a company by finding a willing buyer. This willing buyer then lent the Premier some money. Just a million or so.

And Rodney Propps did not sell him his land where his little house is built. Maybe Lord Ashcroft had Leeward Ltd when he bought it. It’s such a busy company he cannot be sure. And he is so busy he has no idea who sold it to him.

And then we have the open land he got an “option” on and then sold half of that option to some Italian billionaires that were not Belongers (yet?) and turned it into a partnership where he spent nothing for the land, and got $1.9 million for his “half”. He had no idea if they were Belongers or not even though this was a sale of Crown Land. So, the Premier scores $1.9 million on property he never put a dime of money out for to obtain.

At least the Belongers are being uplifted by Crown Land sales…or at least one Belonger, the Premier.

When all is said and done after reading this it is clear that the Commission has the goods and the evidence on the Premier and his cronies. It is clear he is funneling money as fast as he can to Prague, at the least, to fund personal accounts.

And, of course, it is clear that these Prague money men are the same “developers” trying to steal Salt Cay from the TCI with the blessing of the government.

And how do we know this? Because today it came out that the Premier, with his Slovakian pal Mario Hoffman, owns 50% of the Salt Cay Development Company, again through his brother the shill/money mover, Chal Misick. And it has come out that he gave Mario Hoffman Crown land deals that stole the heritage and future of every Belonger on Salt Cay. Details to follow after reading Thursday’s transcripts.

Frankly, it would not surprise me in the least if the Premier took a private jet to someplace else before his testimony is complete. Probably someplace cold, where cabbage soup is a staple and they speak Slovakian dialects. Or you could go to Prague and check your bank balances in person.

Premier, if you plan to flee to Slovakia, please take Mario Hoffman, the folks from DevCo and J&T Investments with you so you can live in the style you have so recently become accustomed to living. It has been so uplifting for all us peasants to watch you steal us blind to support your lifestyle.

By the way, leave some cash to pay your bills and the gates open to the palace when you go.

This is what Shaun Malcolm writes about day three of the Commission’s hearing:

By Shaun Malcolm

Day three of the hearings covered a lot of ground and gave us insights into the broad nature of the corruption under Michael Misick. There were maybe ten or more topics covered.

First Mr. Milne continued to cover some issues related to Michael's personal spending and income and then focused upon issues related to allegations of government corruption. He ended by looking at a couple of high profile development projects and showing blatant conflicts of interest. The news about Salt Cay in particular stunned those present at the hearing.

Mr. Milne followed up on yesterday's questioning about credit cards and how there was not any evidence as to where approximately $1 million of payments to one set of those cards came from.

Mr. Milne also inquired why the Commission could not find any evidence of where payments and loans made by Saunders and Co. to Michael were deposited. They were not deposited into any known or declared accounts. There seems to be circumstantial evidence of other hidden bank accounts. Michael claimed that the $275,000 "loan" from Saunders and Co. went directly to pay for a debt that had built up for jewelery purchases made at Royal Jewels. On most of these questions, Michael's answers continued to be vague and he answered in generalities.

However, a listener was able to get an insight into what Misick's defense will be on many of these accusations. Along with the infamous "cross-party culture", he repeatedly used the phrase of "collective responsibility" referring to his fellow cabinet members and the Governor.

On a personal level there was the issue of the PNP party paying over $100,000 to a hair stylist for Lisa-Raye, expenses charged during his honeymoon, nightclub visits to the "Funky Buddha" in London and a whole assortment of personal charges that appeared to be being paid from political and official funds.

We learned for the first time that the land on which the Casablanca Casino, the one believed by most citizens to be related to Mario Hoffman, sits is owned by Michael Misick. Though he still claims not to have an ownership interest in the Casino itself.

On a governmental level we learned that the Tourist ministry, that he has headed since 2003, owes vendors millions of dollars and has regularly not adhered to its budget. Some vendors appear to be considering litigation against the Turks and Caicos Islands. All this while Misick's wife was receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from the PR firm hired by the Ministry (paid into a company jointly owned by Michael and LisaRaye).

We learned that for the seven areas designated as parks on Grand Turk there are 150 park keepers on the books. Likewise there are many street sweepers on the books, who too appear not to do any work. It appears there are hundreds of meaningless jobs on the books for which people of the right political persuasion collect pay cheques, but do not do any work.

We also learned that even though there are procedures for selecting scholarship recipients, according to an audit report, in over 130 cases Michael Misick intervened and approved scholarships without the selection committee looking at the case files. Michael was also questioned about the reports of certain educational institutions giving kick-backs to government members. Michael claimed that he had not heard of any such allegations.

I believe Mr. Milne is setting things up for when the Ministers of those departments testify to the Commission.

The most stunning news coming out of day three of the hearings however dealt with Salt Cay.

We learn that Mario Hoffman, the owner of Salt Cay DevCo, and Michael Misick know each other well and have traveled abroad socially. We also learned that Michael's brother Chal Misick is 50% owner, along with 50% for Mario Hoffman, in a company called Salt Cay Golf Club.

Salt Cay Golf Club was granted by Michael and his government a lease for 238 acres of Salt Cay for a $1 a year per acre. 238 acres of land, valued a number of years ago at $7.76 million, is being leased for less than $300 a year. Less than the price of a fine meal.

We also learn that this 50% ownership of this 238 acres is what Michael used as HIS collateral to borrow the $6 million from J&T Banka, the Czeck bank that is connected to Mario Hoffman.

Isn't Chal a wonderful brother to lend Michael his ownership interest !!

We also learned of an audit report that states that Mario Hoffman was allowed to purchase a piece of property on Salt Cay worth over $1 million for $160,000. We also learn that Mario Hoffman has Belonger status.

There is not enough space in this article to go into all the details that many of us have been struggling for over a year to bring to light regarding the issues surrounding the Salt Cay development. I and others associated with the TCI Journal have often pointed to the fact that it appeared as if Michael was using Salt Cay as a way to generate great personal wealth for himself by which he hoped to continue to influence events in the Turks and Caicos Islands for generations to come. What happens on Salt Cay is important regardless of which island one lives on.

The testimony before the Commission of Inquiry appears to reveal that Michael Misick is/was positioning himself (fronted by his family) right at the heart of what is described by Mario Hoffman and Mario's associates, on their websites, as a $600 million development.

There was so much more revealed yesterday that I encourage readers to read the other commentaries and the transcript that will be posted later today and over the weekend.

God Bless

TCI

The most corrupt British Overseas Territory. That is the unenvious reputation that the Turks and Caicos Islands have enjoyed internationally over the past thirty years. Yet, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office kept saying for years that there was no evidence of any wrongdoing at the top of the TCI government. They refused to investigate any of the complaints that were made to it by citizens. “Unless you produce the evidence, we will not look into your complaints to see if there is any evidence”. That was their mantra year after year. Meanwhile, the citizens of the TCI observed their islands being sold out from under their feet.

Now that the Foreign Affairs Committee has basically ordered the FCO to investigate the allegations, Sir Robin Auld has been appointed for that purpose. He has been calling on the TCI public to produce evidence to his committee. He has requested Ministers to disclose and reveal all their assets. They have been playing hard to get, and refusing to cooperate with him. He has now announced that he will be summoning the Premier and his Ministers before him to give evidence on oath. That means that the penalties for perjury will apply, if they do not tell the truth.

Things are now hotting up. It seems that what the Europeans call “Higher Supervision” is about to be imposed on the TCI. The latest news is that two British administrators are being sent to oversee all financial operations of the incumbent government until further notice.

The Premier has already for the year allocated as much money for hiring a plane for his travel as he has for hurricane relief. It has been suggested that the provision of these two British administrators is a direct result of “voodoo economics” practised by the Premier and his Deputy. It has even been suggested that the British should dismiss the elected government and appoint an Interim Government as soon after publication of the Commission’s pending report as practicable, if not before.

Are yu, look a wuk!

Or, our Cruzan friends would say,“What a pistarkle!”