#TurksandCaicosIslands – December 22, 2020 – The pace and procedure of financial support to thousands of Turks and Caicos Islands people amidst the catastrophic Covid-19 pandemic has attracted some commendation but mainly it has elicited stinging criticism.
Government last week rushed through the House
of Assembly a measure to grant a Christmas loan of up to one month’s salary to
Civil Servants, while casually accepting that as many as 2,000 people who
applied for stimulus cash were still waiting the promised funds.
The first stimulus payouts began in April,
yet of the 9,000 people who had applied and the 7,165 applications which were
approved, there remains nearly 400 people, eight months later, who have yet to
be paid.
The fact is revealed in the 61-page
Appropriations Committee Report which guided debate on the recent Budget
Supplementary.
Families across the country have been
devastated by the pandemic’s walloping effect on travel and tourism. In some households, both mother and father
lost income or experienced a drastic reduction in salary.
Public sector salaries were uninterrupted
during the pandemic, yet the urgency of the government was clear and the
Christmas loan for its workers was fast-tracked.
The same sense of resoluteness was less
tangible in relation to the thousands who have been pining for their stimulus
monies.
Taxi and public license drivers still
wait. In a press conference, it was
announced there is a $500,000 allotment to this category of workers. However, until they work out an arrangement
with the National Insurance Board, the free funding is frozen.
From the report: ‘Taxi Drivers Stimulus – The Taxi Drivers
stimulus is still outstanding as the Ministry of Finance is awaiting confirmation
from the Taxi Drivers that they had entered into arrangements with NIB’
In the second round of Economic Stimulus, the
TCI Government offered $600 to Turk and Caicos citizens who were adversely
impacted when the national lockdown and subsequent raft of restrictions were
imposed from March to July.
The deadline for applications was December 9
and 3,129 Belongers applied for the financial help. The Report did not state who, if anyone, had
received the payout.
The Appropriations Committee Report informed
90 percent of the 900 Business applications approved are paid; however it means
90 local companies, months later, are still hanging on in hope for the critical
cash.
Also striking in the report is the stated
reduction of $5.5 million in funding to the Economic Stimulus plan. However, the same report informed that the
Committee approved $19.3 million as the new budgeted sum for the stimulus. This
agreed figure falls nearly $12 million below the previously budgeted $25
million dollars for financial support to workers amidst the pandemic.
Meanwhile, the country is apparently swimming
in cash due to, what can only be labelled, a wise savings strategy firmly
guided by British oversight of the once fiscally beleaguered territory.
In the Report presented in the House of
Assembly on December 16, 2020 it is outlined that cumulatively, TCIG has $155
million dollars set aside.
The breakdown is: the National Forfeiture Fund: $6.4 million;
National Wealth Fund: $25.8 million; the Development Fund: $26 million and
Unrestricted Cash: $96.8 million.
While some countries committed to monthly
payments up to a specific number of weeks of stimulus money to people who
suffered lost wages as a result of the unexpected, unprecedented impact of the
coronavirus pandemic, the Turks and Caicos Islands Government opted for a
one-time only payment approach.