Government
You are Wrong! Deputy Premier Saunders hits back in Budget Communication
By Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TurksandCaicos, May 16, 2023 – ‘You were wrong!’ That was the decisive reiterated response from E Jay Saunders, Minister of Finance and Deputy Premier as he provided figures showing increases in the 2023/24 budget to disprove claims made by the Leader of the Opposition about budget cuts.
“We are spending $135 million more on our people of our beautiful by nature Turks and Caicos Islands than has ever been spent prior to our government— if I’m wrong, tomorrow or today or whenever you come with your speech, please show me where we’re spending less,” he said.
The verbal tug of war regarding the ‘historic-ness’ of the largest ever budget presented in the Turks and Caicos continued in the budget debate on Tuesday May 16th. Edwin Astwood, Leader of the Opposition had referred to it as a “Historic Budget of Constraints” and even failures in a heated speech of his own.
“Besides two in Social Services, all government programs have been cut or are greatly underfunded. This is a Historic Budget of constraints— Local and international Training Cut, Internal training cut, youth activities cut, no increase in international scholarships, no expansion of Preventative Health, no expansion to national security and Border, small and medium contracts cut, preventative maintenance and clearing cut, and no increase in grants to entrepreneurs and startup businesses,” Astwood had said in a May 10 statement.
It was these claims that Saunders sought to address during his presentation, even adjusting his Budget Communication speech to do so.
In response to arguments that nearly all government programs had been cut he said: “As Minister of Finance I’ve got
In response to Astwood’s claim that there was no expansion to national and border security:
“The Opposition Leader said that in this budget, there are reductions in national security. I don’t know if he still stands by that statement but we’ll see.”
Saunders said as he went on to describe:
- A 12 percent increase in funding for the police (total $34 million);
- A 53 percent increase to the Radar Unit (total $1.2 million);
- A 44 percent increase in the allocation to the contingency military force (total $2.8 million) and;
- A 111 percent increase in cash for policy planning in the ministry of immigration (total $5.8 million)
“When you stated that in this budget, there is no expansion to national security and borders and that this budget does not address our border crisis. You were wrong!”
In regards to Youth and Education, Saunders ramped up his rebuttal, to the claims of reductions in international scholarships, training and youth activities Saunders said,
“Mr. Leader of the Opposition, when you stated that this was a budget of youth activities cuts and that this budget does not address the training of our people- you were wrong.”
He revealed a total 19 percent increase for Education and Youth (total $51.1 million) with significant jumps for the HJ Robinson High (total $3 million ) Clement Howell High (total $3.8 million) and others.
Also recorded is 31 percent increase for the youth department, now getting $877,000.
Additionally an increase of 13.5 percent for Libraries (or $633,000)
The trend continued with Health, where the Deputy Premier and Finance Minister detailed an increase of one percent (total $84.6 million).
In the face of these numbers, Saunders said it should be a ‘foregone conclusion’ that his government is delivering on the PNP’s Citizens’ Contract and achieving social, economic and environmental progress for all.