Turks & Caicos Gov’t offers interest-free Christmas advance to Civil Servants

TurksandCaicosIslands – December 10, 2020 – TCIG PRESS RELEASE – The Turks and Caicos Islands Government is pleased to advise of the approval of the Public Financial Management (Special Christmas Advance) (Temporary Provisions) Bill 2020 which was approved by the Cabinet and subsequently the House of Assembly to facilitate the payment of an interest free Christmas Advance to all interested Civil Servants.

The Turks and Caicos Islands Government has for the past two decades and beyond, always provided its staff with some form of a Christmas Advance/Loan Program. 

In 2011 TCIG regrettably ceased the direct offering of the program itself due to fiscal constraints.  However, a partnership was entered into with the local financial institutions to offer a program to staff at commercial interest rates.

In 2019 TCIG reinstated the direct offering of an interest free Christmas Advance to its staff on more favorable terms than in the past as the previous programs only allowed a maximum payout of $2,000 while the new program allows staff up to a maximum of their basic monthly salary.

Some 1,148 civil servants benefited from the 2019 program at a cost of $2.9m to the Turks and Caicos Government with a payback rate of over 99% demonstrating its great success.

Commenting on the program Deputy Governor Anya Williams said:  “We are pleased to once again offer our staff an interest free Christmas Advance Program this financial year. 

Civil servants have worked tirelessly throughout the past few months during the pandemic to ensure that service continued to be delivered to persons across the Turks and Caicos Islands in a highly difficult environment. 

They have done an excellent job in responding to the pandemic by working to keep us safe and healthy, ensure that revenue continued to be collected, expenses continued to be paid, our borders were able to be reopened, our streets continued to be policed and maintained and our children continued to receive instructional learning through our online learning platforms, among other areas.

We are grateful for their continued dedication and commitment and will continue to do our best to improve the social, economic and physical well-being of civil servants across the TCI by continuing to establish policies and programs to their benefit.”

Premier Sharlene Cartwright-Robinson in commenting said:  “Notwithstanding the fiscal challenges around the world at the moment, my Government is pleased to once again facilitate an interest free Christmas Advance program for the civil service this year.

We know that this has been a very difficult year for many persons, including persons in the civil service who while receiving their full salaries during the pandemic may still have been impacted by other means due to loss of income by other family members.

Having prioritized our finances, we have as a government sought during the pandemic to provide much needed support to persons across the Turks and Caicos Islands through our Stimulus, Business Grant, Feeding and other assistance programs and will continue to provide support and assistance where necessary to all persons possible, including those in the civil service.”