Submission from Mr John Styles, President,
Chamber of Commerce, St Helena Island
The Chamber of Commerce submits the following
examples of poor governance in the overseas territory of St.Helena
Island.
1. Currently the Governor`s reserved powers
give him control over all financial matters. As most matters requiring
a decision involve finance this gives the Governor control over
most of the activities of the St Helena Government. Consequently
most decisions are not taken democratically.
2. Those Legislative Council Members who
are not Members of Government are, effectively, disfranchised
from the decision making process. This is because the various
Committees consist of two Executive Council Members (Government)
and two non Government Legislative Council Members with one of
the Executive Council Members having a casting vote. Consequently
a number of democratically elected Councillors ultimately have
no power to make decisions. This process has been introduced within
the last two years. Previously, Legislative Council Members were
in the majority.
3. The process for appointing individuals
to the various Boards on the Island is that the Governor makes
the appointments. This, in itself is not the problem. The problem
is that these paid vacancies are not openly advertised with the
appropriate skills and experience of potential applicants being
taken into account. It is simply who the Governor want to appoint.
4. Most Executive Council (Government) discussions
are unnecessarily held in secrecy and are not open to the public,
which simply promotes the current distrust of Government. This
goes against the principles openness and transparency.
We do not believe that democracy exists on St
Helena and the lack of such will mitigate against future investment
on the Island and continue to damage private sector development.
15 October 2007
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