Minister Regrets "No VAT" in Turks and Caicos Islands -The iPINIONS Journal

Rumors of the sun setting on the British Empire have been slightly exaggerated. The dominion Britain still exercises over the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI), my mother country, attests to this.

As it happened, I was in the vanguard of TCIslanders who called on the British Government in 2008 to assert its dominion by suspending the TCI Constitution:

Alas, outrage is not sufficient to hold TCI government officials accountable for their corrupt practices. If it were, the disaffected, disillusioned and disgusted people of the TCI would have done so long ago.

Instead, we need the British to honor their constitutional obligations to us by convening a commission of inquiry – not only to investigate the vast scope of these allegations, but also to recover public funds that have been misappropriated.

(“Commission of Inquiry Looms for TCI,” The iPINIONS Journal, March 31, 2008)

I reinforced the determined and sustained nature of our call in many other commentaries, including “TCI Government Attempts to Halt British Inquiry into Corruption,” July 18, 2008, and “The Case for an Interim Government in TCI,” November 14, 2008.

As indicated, local leaders betrayed “clear signs of political amorality, immaturity and of general administrative incompetence.” This fostered a culture of systematic corruption – highlighted by Misick using the tourism budget to fund his Hollywood lifestyle.

It speaks volumes that the Commission of Inquiry Report we sought reads like an indictment against a notorious crime syndicate.

In August 2009, the British suspended the TCI Constitution, stripped local leaders of all political powers, and resumed direct rule. A UK Special Investigation and Prosecution Team (SIPT) duly arrested Misick, four members of his official cabinet, and five members of his “kitchen cabinet,” and charged them with multiple counts of fraud, corruption, and money laundering.

The defendants paid millions (using ill-gotten gains, presumably) for lawyers to file frivolous motions to delay the inevitable. In fact, their trial finally got underway just weeks ago (on December 7).

Only God knows how long proceedings will last (estimates range from six to nine months). The evidence is such, however, that it will take a miracle for any of them to be acquitted on all counts.

In any event, the British returned self-rule to the TCI in November 2012, after local elections for a new government. I pledged at the time to eschew commenting on politics there from my perch here in Washington, DC.

But then came the Value Added Tax (VAT). Specifically, local leaders opposed efforts to implement it with the same kind of anti-British rhetoric with which they opposed calls to suspend the TCI Constitution five years earlier.

I felt obliged to break my pledge. Here, in part, is how I did in “TCI Looking to CARICOM (et al) to Repeal VAT,” February 5, 2013.

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I fear our newly elected leaders are manifesting the same kind of political immaturity and administrative incompetence that doomed their predecessors.

Exhibit A is the misguided appeal these new leaders are making to CARICOM to prevent the British from implementing VAT. After all, Misick and his cronies wasted lots of time and money making a similar appeal to prevent the British from suspending the Constitution…

Like the old government, our new government is willfully mischaracterizing the British Government’s constitutional duty to ensure good governance and sound fiscal management as a neo-colonial conspiracy to “keep us subjugated.” Never mind that I’ve been calling our local leaders’ bluff on this canard for years.

Notably, I challenged no less a person than Misick to stop scapegoating the British and hold a referendum on independence. After all, he made quite a show of promising to do so, and the British have always promised to facilitate it.

I congratulate Premier Misick on this historical accomplishment [of becoming our country’s first premier]. More importantly, I encourage him to lead in such a way as to inspire the spirit of independence in our people – not as a jingoistic badge of honor, but as a self-actualizing and sustainable fact of life. After all, our pending referendum should not question whether we want (or are prepared for) our independence. It should present us with the opportunity to declare it!

(“Hail Premier Misick!” The iPINIONS Journal, August 11, 2006)

Ironically, if he had honored his promise, Misick would not be on trial, facing decades in prison, today. But I digress.

The British Government is proposing VAT as the fairest way to generate reliable revenue streams to fund government programs. Our new government is not only opposing it, but acting as if defeating VAT would automatically generate similar revenue streams.

Intelligent minds can differ on whether VAT is good for the TCI. But it’s demonstrably specious for local leaders to insist that VAT will destroy our economy. Especially given that VAT is providing fair and sustainable revenues in regional countries like Antigua, Barbados, and Jamaica.

Barbados’ former Prime Minister and eminent Caribbean Statesman, Owen Arthur, has described value-added tax (VAT) as the best option for the Caribbean region in the age of trade liberalization.

(Tax-News, London, 12 August 2010)

I agree.

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Unfortunately, the British deferred to local leaders on VAT. No doubt they were exceedingly sensitive to complaints about imposing their “neo-colonial” will. They had just returned the TCI to self-rule under a new Constitution, after all.

However, I knew it was only a matter of time before local leaders became hoisted by their own petard. Confirmation came over the Christmas holidays in the form of a refreshingly honest admission by no less a person than the TCI minister of finance.

Minister of Finance Hon. Washington Misick is beginning to regret his decision to side with opponents of the British-piloted Value Added Tax proposal…

He hinted that those who opposed the VAT did so because of personal interest and not that of the country…

‘I think we, at that particular point, allowed the messenger, who was the wrong messenger, perhaps at that time in our history to influence us together with the persons who want to keep their books closed.’

(Turks and Caicos Sun, December 18-25, 2015)

Incidentally, Minister Misick is the older brother of the disgraced former premier now sitting in the dock. His admission suggests that his younger brother is capable of some contrition … someday.

But the Minister is being a little disingenuous. For I recall all too well how his brother scapegoated British politicians for policies he implemented as premier, which had him bankrupting the country to live in his version of a gangsta’s paradise. Now he’s scapegoating expatriate businessmen for policies he implemented as finance minister, which have him taxing poor TCIslanders to the gills to justify his decision to oppose VAT.

I just hope he appreciates how much this admission impeaches his professional judgment. The congressional Committee on Ways and Means writes the U.S. tax code. This admission is rather like the chairman of that committee admitting that lobbyists for gun manufacturers influenced him to have their profits exempted from taxation.

Still, to be fair, the Minister has just cause to regret relying on a Blue Ribbon Commission on taxation to vindicate his opposition. After all, the so-called experts on this commission “misled” him to believe they could either devise viable alternatives to VAT or, with time, structure a way to “properly implement” it.

They’ve had over two and a half years to deliver. Yet, evidently, the only thing he has to show for their expert advice is regret that his government did not heed our advice to implement VAT, as the British proposed, in the first place.

The prevailing point is that local leaders stoked anti-British resentment to oppose suspension of the Constitution in 2009 and implementation of VAT in 2013. And much of what passes for political debate in TCI still reeks of such ignorant, impudent, and self-defeating resentment.

Interestingly enough, their visceral antipathy is such that I have often analogized the relationship our leaders have with the British to that which Republicans have with President Obama. In each case, even if the latter proposed foolproof measures to reduce violent crime, guarantee full employment, and sustain economic growth, the former would oppose them.

Meanwhile, since demanding premature return to self-rule, local leaders have done little more than turn our country from a tranquil tax haven for foreigners into a crime-ridden tax trap for TCIslanders.

Hope springs eternal that they will develop a mature and constructive relationship with the British. Or, perhaps they will finally find the courage to put their money where their mouth is and petition for independence.

Their record of administrative incompetence is such, however, that I hope local leaders pursue the former – with due humility and respect. The fate of the long-suffering people of the TCI depends on them doing so.