Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
After two increases the Turks and Caicos budget is expected to end the financial year with expenditure below $440 million according to Washington Misick, TCI Premier and Finance Minister.
Misick tabled the fourth and final Supplementary Appropriations Bill in the House of Assembly on March 21 and the debate began on March 24. With that Bill the premier sought to reduce the budget from $442 million to $436.29 million.
The budget had increased rapidly in the earlier quarters of the fiscal period, then it sunk.
The initial budget earmarked $424.3 million for the year with the expectation that the year would end in a deficit. But during the first supplementary appropriations bill in September 2023 that was raised by $13.4 million bringing it to a grand total of $437.6 million.
That extra money was to be used for the following:
- $4.2 million for community development, including road improvement and more.
- $1.4 million for a Community Centre in Bottle Creek
- $450,000 on the long-awaited refurbishment of the sports field in South Caicos.
- $1.4million for consultancies
- $1 million on repatriation
- $1 million to Social Programs
- $1.8 million to InterHealth Canada
- A $500,000 injection to the country’s Climate Resilience Coastal Protection Study
- $851,000 for software and consultancy to get the Turks and Caicos off the EU blacklist
- $2 million for the cleaning of government agencies
Then during the second appropriations bill total expenditure was pushed further to $443.4 million increasing the planned deficit to $25.6 million, which would have been funded from cash reserves. That money was to be used for:
- An $800,000 investment in a reverse osmosis plant in Grand Turk;
- An $800,000 allocation for the renovation of the Bambarra Beach Vendors Market;
- A $600,000 check for the Boundary Commission and claims against the government;
- An allocation of $800,000 for community enhancement and environmental sustainability;
- $410,000 for Educational investment (furniture and equipment for schools);
- $276,000 for Law enforcement resources (additional police vehicles);
- $250,000 for National Security improvements (the hiring of a strategic lead) and;
- $180,000 for Maritime security enhancement (the purchase of a 3rd sea patrol vessel
By the third supplementary in February, $1.07 million was shaved off the budget and money reallocated from some projects to fund others. Here’s what those reallocations should have looked like:
- $9.5 million to acquire land and settle an ongoing claim against the government.
- $7 million as seed funding for a Mortgage Corporation.
- $300,000 to rollout e-Government projects for the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Home Affairs.
- $800,000 for Miscellaneous adjustments for other Supplies, Materials and Equipment – Governor’s Office, Civil Servant Week and allocation to support the ongoing pay and regrading exercise and productivity audit.
That brought the country to its final and most recent (4th) supplementary tabled by Misick on the 21st of March. Despite an expected deficit of about $18.4 million from projected income of $417.8 million, the country could end the year in a surplus as the economy has outperformed income estimates and the government continues to underspend.
