Select Committee on International Development Minutes of Evidence


APPENDIX 2

Letter from HE Ronald Sanders, CMG, High Commissioner for Antigua and Barbuda, to the Clerk of the Committee

  On the instructions of my Government, I write concerning a most unseemly discussion which took place in your Committee on 5 May 1998 when evidence was being taken from the Secretary of State in the Department for International Development, the Rt Hon Clare Short, in the context of the problems being faced by the people of Montserrat at home, in the United Kingdom and in Antigua where the majority has taken refuge.

  Your Chairman state that "Antigua does not have a particularly good reputation for spending money on those things which other people have given them money to spend on. I am very keen that it is actually spent on what you, Secretary of State, have agreed it should be spent on". In response the Secretary of State said, "If I could say diplomatically, we are aware of the record and we are doing our best to ensure the money is spent on the agreed objectives. I think we are fairly confident that we have got procedures to ensure that is done".[21]

  My Government was most disappointed at this exchange, particularly as Antigua and Barbuda has burdened itself by assisting the people of Montserrat who are, and remain, the responsibility of the British government. My Government has responded favourably to every request it has received from the British Government in relation to Montserrat, and we consider this exchange at so high a level not only to be a poor reward for our support of Britain and Montserrat, but also unbecoming of the situation. As two of the members of your Committee observed, potentially libellous statements were made during this unfortunate exchange.

  The facts of the matter are that the British Government offered to provide the Government of Antigua and Barbuda with a grant of £3 million to cater for the excessive burden that had been placed on the country's health and education facilities by the introduction of over 3,000 people to our population of 65,000. That offer was made in September 1997, almost nine months ago. Since then only the very small sum of £140,000 has actualy been spent by the United Kingdom although £2.68 million has been allocated to projects in education and health. Over that entire period, my Government has continued to carry the burden of the British refugees from Montserrat whose numbers, at one time, reached 4,000. Today, there are less than 3,000 people in Montserrat, approximately 3,000 in the United Kingdom and about 3,500 on Antigua.

  Your Committee should also be aware that Montserratians have been fleeing to Antigua since July 1995, therefore the burden on the Antigua and Barbuda Government has been persisting now for three years. It is worth repeating that, in all that time, the British government has disbursed only £140,000 to buy a bus, school books and provide school places for 100 Montserratian children—a smaller number than the actual Montserratian children who have taken up school places. My Government and the people of Antigua and Barbuda have carried this burden without complaint.

  With regard to the balance of the £2.68 million which has been allocated, these funds are fully controlled by the British Government's agency located in Barbados. That agency has agreed with the authorities in Antigua that funds will be spent as follows:

    £1 million

    — to build a school at Green Bay;

    £1.53 million

    — to build four small health clinics, provide equipment for the Holberton Hospital; provide equipment to a home for the aged and infirm;

    £140,000

    — spent on the purchase of a bus, school books and providing class room space for 100 Montserratians.

  My Government would be grateful if you would share this letter with all the members of your Committee.

Ronald M Sanders, CMG

High Commissioner

4 June 1998


21   See p. 31. Back


 
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