Turks and Caicos Post Cabinet Meeting Statement
Her Excellency the Acting Governor, Anya Williams, chaired the 18th meeting of the Cabinet on Wednesday, 19 July 2017, at the Hon. Hilly Ewing Building on Providenciales.
All Ministers were present except the Hon. Minister of Home Affairs, Transportation and Communication and the Hon. Minister of Education, Youth, Sports and Library Services.
At this meeting Cabinet:
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advised Her Excellency the Acting Governor to approve amendments to the Public Finance Management Ordinance, the Public Finance Management Regulations, the Invest Turks and Caicos Islands Ordinance and the Tourist Board Ordinance to insert claw-back clauses to enable unexpended subventions and excess revenues to be remitted to the Consolidated Fund prior to or at the end of any financial year to bring them into in line with other Statutory Bodies
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noted the financial performance of the TCI Government as submitted in the Monthly Financial Report for May 2017 by the Accountant General. Cabinet noted that the Caribbean Development Bank loan of $1 million in relation to loans for Invest TCI had been repaid. Cabinet further noted that the Consolidated Fund recorded a surplus of $5.8 million during May and that recurrent revenue for the month amounted to $25.7 million which was $0.3 million ahead of budgeted revenue forecast
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received an information paper from the Hon. Minister of Finance, Investment and Trade on implementation of the 11th European Development Fund (EDF11) in TCI. Cabinet noted that the EDF11 budget stood at €14.6 million in support of education sector reform which would be disbursed in several tranches between 2017-2019
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advised Her Excellency the Acting Governor to approve a technical assistance loan of $441,000 from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and a grant of $50,000 from the European Investment Bank which complemented the CDB loan for consultancy services to conduct a feasibility study and prepare designs for climate resilient coastal protection on the islands of Grand Turk, Salt Cay and Providenciales and to prepare a shoreline management plan for TCI. Cabinet further approved the Loan Agreement with the CDB be forwarded to the House of Assembly for approval
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advised Her Excellency the Acting Governor to approve the Dormant Accounts (Amendment) Bill 2017 for forwarding to the House of Assembly for approval
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received an information paper from the Hon. Minister of Finance, Investment and Trade up-dating Cabinet on the closure of Salt Cay Airport and on steps being taken by the TCI Airports Authority to address current issues
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noted the appointment of Mr Eric Floyd Seymour as CEO of Invest Turks and Caicos for a period of 2 years with effect from 14 August 2017
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advised Her Excellency the Governor to approve the re-appointment of Mr Thomas Swann as CEO of the TCI Civil Aviation Authority for a period of 1 year with effect from 1 October 2017
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Following extensive public consultation which concluded in favour of change, agreed to the reintroduction in TCI of Daylight Saving Time (DST) during the summer months and Standard Time, also known as Local Time, during the winter months with effect from April 2018 to allow sufficient time to notify the public and relevant local and international organisations of the change
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received an information paper from the Hon. Minister of Finance, Investment and Trade up-dating Cabinet on progress on the Vision 2040 Document and Medium-Term Development Strategy project
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advised Her Excellency the Acting Governor to approve for public tender approximately 0.63 acres of Crown Land on Parcel 10409/184 at East Suburbs on Grand Turk for the purpose of commercial development in accordance with the Crown Land Ordinance
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advised Her Excellency the Acting Governor to approve the Tobacco Control Regulations to enable full implementation of the Tobacco Control Ordinance 2016
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requested the Hon. Minister of Health to ensure that the Board, as a matter of urgency, undertakes the recruitment process to fill the positions of CEO and CFO of the National Health Insurance Board on a substantive basis
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advised Her Excellency the Acting Governor to approve an online public consultation on the introduction of a public transport system to improve transport services across TCI which would be considered further by Cabinet following the consultation
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advised Her Excellency the Acting Governor to approve dates for the 2017/18 crawfish season to run from 15 August 2017 – 31 March 2018 and for the Ministry to notify the public of the dates;
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received an information paper from the Hon. Minister of Infrastructure, Housing and Planning up-dating Cabinet on the proposal to use the Green Door on Grand Turk as temporary accommodation for low-risk prisoners to enable essential works to be carried out on prisoner accommodation blocks at HM Prison. Cabinet noted the results of the recently concluded consultation on the temporary change of use of the Green Door and agreed to issue a new notice to address the concerns initially raised
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advised Her Excellency the Acting Governor to grant approval for the Ministry of Finance, Investment and Trade to begin discussions with AirBnB on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to enable the collection of the Government’s revenue from operators in the vacation villa rental accommodation sector and to support the regulation of vacation villa rental accommodation in TCI
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advised Her Excellency the Acting Governor to approve the re-establishment of the National Lottery Board in accordance with the TCI National Lottery Ordinance subject to budgetary provision being made
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received a briefing by Her Excellency the Acting Governor on a series of workshops carried out across TCI in July by the Ministry of Infrastructure, Housing and Planning and the Procurement Unit to raise awareness of the TCI capital works programme, how to bid for projects and the procurement process for awarding contracts.
Further information on these matters will be provided by Ministers in due course.