By Deandrea Hamilton & Dana Malcolm

Editorial Staff

#TurksandCaicos, May 14, 2022 – With so many pages in a mammoth sized document which captures all of the national spending for the upcoming fiscal year, it is possible that the Leader of the Opposition missed important allocations.

When Edwin Astwood, Leader of the Opposition PDM stood to respond to the Budget Communication delivered on Tuesday May 3, he blasted the government for a number of areas he claimed was underfunded.

Akierra Missick, who is the Government’s Lead in the House of Assembly, rebutted his remarks and accusations as untrue and pointed to a lack of research and thorough examination of the Budget on Astwood’s part.

“Some amazing comments were shared by my colleague opposite, the Leader of the Opposition …he knows some facts need to be cleared up,” said Hon Akierra Misick, who is the Minister for Physical Planning and Infrastructure Development and the Member for the Long Bay and Leeward District of Providenciales.

During his submission on the Budget, there were harsh words about insufficient funding to the Royal TCI Police, however, the Minister said the statement is untrue.

“I heard the Police Commissioner himself say it during the Appropriations Committee, he has presented a Budget is accepted and adopted by the Executive, by the Budget Department, by the Ministry of Finance.  Of course there will always be a scope for increased funding in every single budget, in every single department but there must be a balance and National Security is a priority of this Administration and it is reflected in our budget because you would note, in the Budget Book the Police force funding for last financial year was $27 million this year it is increased to $31.5 million, which is an increase of $3.6 million.

So to say that that is not us putting our money where our mouth is just plain untrue,” said the Minister who defended spending on national and border security.

She also pointed out that the Opposition Leader must have missed the announcement of at least three new vessels.

“In the capitals projects pages he would note that there is a vessel for national security, secretariat alone; in the police budget he would note that there is a vessel for the police. In the DECR budget, there is a vessel for the DECR and maybe he missed it in the Capital Projects pages which shows that the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office of the UK Government is investing $1 million in the DECR equipment and resources to assist us in protecting our borders.”

She assured there is allocation for CCTV cameras and a whopping 229 percent increase in training for Police officers.

“Their increase in the training alone shows that we are pouring our time and energy into the resources of the police force to assist us in our national security goals. On the heels of that, my brother colleague must have missed that under the Border Force initiative, again contained in our Budget, we are installing two radar stations one in the North West Point area, one in the Leeward Long Bay area; again to assist with meeting our national security goals and needs.”

In respect of Edwin Astwood’s strong remarks on the infrastructural projects or lack thereof across constituencies, she said contrary to his statement work was being done in the constituencies citing the bridge in Salt Cay and, the dump in Wheeland and other projects in Blue Hills, Leeward and Long Bay.

An improvement identified by the minister, ‘street lighting.’

“I know it’s a big book.  I know the Appropriations Committee did the best that they could in the time that they had, so I’m not going to say that my colleague would have intentionally overlooked these vessels in the Budget Book during his presentation but as one who believes in consensus building and building bridges – like I did in Salt Cay, which I will talk about a little later on, ‘cause my brother doesn’t seem to have visited that part of his constituency in the last few weeks to see the work happening in Salt Cay- I’m here to build bridges and let you know we are putting our money, our energy and our time into national security, into police force training, into upgrades.”

She said her ministry was “co-sponsoring” on the construction of a law enforcement recruitment and training center, to the tune of $2 million and she reminded the LOO about several moratoriums to prioritize TCI Islanders’ employment opportunities.

“On the heels of genuine concerns that we would have had about Turks and Caicos Islander businesses having a true opportunity to bid for these larger scale construction works under the large contractors’ business license, the Ministry of Finance took the position that we would freeze large construction licenses that did not have a TC Islander majority ownership in them.

This provides us as Islanders another opportunity for us to get our affairs in order and be the movers and shakers and the builders of the bigger projects in these islands.”

Misick told the Speaker of the $2.3 million investment into smaller contractors and the ministry is seeking to incentivize the hiring of more Turks and Caicos Islanders in the construction industry.

Citing the support to entrepreneurs, the coming review to support livable wages and the cumulative millions directly to TCI homes through her government’s initiatives, Misick said these are a reflection that the Budget is “people centered.”