St Helena : ST HELENA EXCO MEETING, 10 MAY 2011
Submitted by Saint Helena Herald (Public Relations Information Office) 16.05.2011 (Article Archived on 30.05.2011)
Our previous EXCO meeting was three weeks’ ago, but in spite of that we had a small agenda in front of us. All Elected Members were present and Gilly Francis stood in as Acting Chief Secretary whilst Frank Wastell acted as Attorney General. We began by confirming the minutes of two meetings – 5th and 19th April.
ST HELENA EXCO MEETING, 10 MAY 2011
By H. E. the Governor Mr Andrew Gurr
Our previous EXCO meeting was three weeks’ ago, but in spite of that we had a small agenda in front of us. All Elected Members were present and Gilly Francis stood in as Acting Chief Secretary whilst Frank Wastell acted as Attorney General. We began by confirming the minutes of two meetings – 5th and 19th April.
Matters Arising lasted some time as there was quite a bit of progress to report.
One of the issues raised on 5th May was to do with the productivity levels within government. Councillors had received comments from some of the public that officers were seen shopping during their lunch break, which is quite permissible, and then partaking of lunch, which obviously is also allowed. But the point of the comment was of course that possibly such dual activity means that the half hour allowed for lunch was being exceeded. The Acting Chief Secretary assured Members that she had raised the matter at the last meeting of Directors and that they accepted that this is a management issue and therefore their responsibility. The comment was made that flexi-time is often allowable and that many Civil Servants work additional time without extra reward. It would be a pity if the activities of a minority created a bad name for the whole Service.
I then raised the matter of our response time to letters. There have been a number of examples recently where we have fallen far behind the standard that we should achieve. The Acting Chief Secretary promised to remind all Directors and HODs that we should adhere to the policy of an acknowledgement within 3 days and an answer within 2 weeks. If the answer is not forthcoming within that time communication should be sent explaining that and estimating when the answer would be ready.
I reported on a number of matters that have made progress – job offers to a Chief Executive of Economic Development and a Chief Secretary, the work being done by John Styles on the future of our media, links between this government and Saints on Ascension Is., and the future of the RMS St.Helena which is being discussed in some depth with all relevant parties at present.
It was also confirmed that the Financial Secretary is working on a document to provide the answers to the questions raised by the organisers of the protest march at their recent meeting. He will include details from the Social Impact Analysis that advised the recent increases in utility prices. This is likely to take 3 weeks due to the forthcoming visit by DAPM.
Council then agreed to a dispensation under Paragraph 4 of Schedule II of the Immigration Control Ordinance and went on to discuss the issue of a number of licence fees. Examples of the kind of cost we were referring to would be vehicle licences, drivers’ licences, dog licences, gun licences and so on. The actual amounts concerned are not large, and do not reflect any profit to government as they represent the actual cost, but Members were acutely aware of the pressure on household expenditure at the present time. It was felt that there is a good case to be made for staggering increases so that they don’t all come at once right at the start of the financial year. So the paper was referred back to the Home & International Committee for consideration of the idea to come up with proposals for changes to be made in October rather than April. Under Any Other Business the closeness of having met the Untargeted Subsidy deadline with regard to achieving our undertaking of the MOU was mentioned.
Councillors also raised the rather difficult issue of reefer containers for the storage and export of fish. The fact is that we have been catching so much fish that we are quickly running out of suitable containers for this prime export. Apparently there is an international shortage of such containers at present and this might mean that we would be unable to get the full benefit of the present wealth of fish in our seas. I undertook to look into the matter.
I advised Members that Andrew Wells will not be returning to the island. His contract was nearing its end anyway and he has found a private sector job in Hong Kong that he will be starting in June. We wish him well for the future.
It would be remiss of me not to mention the forthcoming visit of Colin Roberts, the Head of the FCO’s Overseas Territories Department and thus my boss. It will be Colin’s first visit here and he will of course arrive on the same ship as the DAPM team next Monday 16th. However his programme will be quite different from theirs and I hope that as many of you as possible get a chance to meet him. He will not be staying for long as he leaves for Ascension on Wednesday 19th. Although we are often found to be concentrating on DFID as our provider of funds, the FCO is of course a far larger UK Government Department and has the major influence over our Constitution as well as over the Governor.
The meeting finished at around 1.05 pm
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