LONDON, England, Monday, May 18th, 2009 – Premier the Honorable Galmo W Williams MP, met with the Honorable Gillian Merron MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London today.
Minister Merron took the time to meet the Premier and Deputy Premier and Minister of Finance the Honorable Royal S Robinson, MP MBE even as the British Parliament was embroiled in a controversy of their own.
Premier Williams presented to the Under Secretary of State the ‘Cockburn Town Declaration’ which outlined a series of initiatives that have been and are to be undertaken by his administration.
The Initiatives are drawn from the recommendations of last fall’s Commission of Inquiry led by Mr. Justice Sir Robin Auld. Premier Williams was concerned primarily with the risk factors involved in suspension. These risk factors evolved in two ways, the reduction of systemic political risk owing to the transparency policies of the Williams Administration and the uncertainty of economic risk under suspension by which Britain will become financially responsible for the TCI.
The Premier impressed upon the Under Secretary that his administration was committed to the Interim and the eventual final Report in such a way that it seemed redundant to him if suspension of the Constitution was merely to implement the Report’s recommendations.
The Under Secretary congratulated and encouraged the Premier in his efforts to remake the image and the substance of Government in the Turks and Caicos Islands. However Minister Merron expressed grave reservations to halting the suspension process. She explained that she regarded the problem as a “root and branch” problem that required deep and searching reform; whilst seeming to suggest that she could not foresee given the information she had in hand how a different course of action could be taken.
In what was a firm but friendly exchange of views the Premier responded that he was committed no matter the outcome not merely to implementing the recommendations of the Interim Report but to institute such policies drawn from the broader concerns of the population of the Turks and Caicos Islands for a more transparent, efficient and better government in the TCI.
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