Ascension : BUSINESS NEWS FROM ASCENSION ISLAND
Submitted by The Islander (Ascension Island Government) 31.01.2008 (Article Archived on 14.02.2008)

This report has been prepared for the people of Saint Helena and those Saints living and working on Ascension Island.

H.E. THE GOVERNOR MR ANDREW GURR’S ASCENSION ISLAND REPORT

By H. E. the Governor Mr Andrew Gurr

This report has been prepared for the people of Saint Helena and those Saints living and working on Ascension Island.

The reason for my visit from 10th to the 22nd January was to familiarise myself with all aspects of the Island and its current situation. A very full programme was arranged to enable me to meet as many people living on Ascension as possible.

I had fruitful discussions with the Administrator Mike Hill, chaired a meeting of the Advisory Group, answered a maze of questions at a Public Meeting, discussed the forthcoming budget for the Island, and looked into certain individual issues that had been described to me before I left St.Helena. Amanda Ross McDowell flew in for a couple of days to help in the process. Amanda is the Desk Officer for both St.Helena and Ascension in the FCO. Until recently I had no idea what a Desk Officer actually is – Amanda is the link person between myself and all those with whom I have to deal in London, especially the FCO and DFID. She organised my recent briefing activity and it was good to see her once again, and benefit from her experience and skill.

During my visit I became aware of the complexity of the dual role of being Governor of both islands. It is my responsibility to do the best for both places and indeed for Saints living in both places, and Ascension is dominated in terms of population by 739 Saints out of a total of 946 – that is 78.1%.

It would take a while to list all those I met, suffice it to say I chatted with many people in addition to the obvious ones – those being the Base Commanders, Corporate Leaders, ex-Councillors, Department Heads and so forth. The highlight for me was the Public Meeting which was said to be well attended, with some estimates being over 80. It seemed that a good cross-section of the island turned out and I have reported on the detail of the meeting already.

I feel that it would be useful to try and summarise the background to the current situation as well as give my conclusions with regard to the future. I realise that there are many complexities in the background and I hope that my description of the situation is simple rather than simplistic.

Most of you will know very well that Ascension has never had a permanently settled population. There has never been a general entitlement to enter or remain on Ascension Island or to own your own home on the island. It has always been a “Company” island dominated by the military and a handful of employers who have built and maintained housing. Ascension has been, and is, totally dependent upon these organisations – it is as though it is on a kind of economic life support machine.

The organisations and activities to which I am referring are:

• The RAF and its sub-contractor SERCO who maintain the viability of the Falklands Airbridge.

• The United States Air Force and its sub-contractor who manage the runway and handle the tracking of missiles fired from the USA.

• The BBC World Service with its broadcasting activity to Africa.

• The Arianne launch tracking operation,

• Cable & Wireless who provide the communications infrastructure, and

• CSO, whose physical presence has diminished over the years.

There are of course other organisations and businesses of varying size that are very important to life on the Island, and the services for all those living and working on the island were until recently provided by an organisation funded directly by the corporate players I have just mentioned. There was no government, no taxation and no Councillors – ideal you might think!

In 1999 the FCO published a White Paper called Partnership for Progress and Prosperity. This outlined the policy of Her Majesty’s Government towards Overseas Territories. It heralded a new era in the relationship between the UK and the Territories and encouraged partnership and greater democracy. It also said that every territory was unique and needed a constitutional framework to suit its own circumstances.

At about the same time, the ‘Companies’ on Ascension told the UK Government that they wanted to concentrate on their main business activities and no longer wished to fund the majority of the services on the island directly. The UK needed to consider the future administration of the island and produced a consultation paper in April 1999 to look at options on how Ascension could be run. Following this, the FCO agreed that the Ascension Island Administration should take over responsibility for core services and a new system for raising revenue by charging taxes was put in place. A further consultation was held with those working and living on the island on the form of democratic representation they wanted for the island. And in 2002, an elected Council was established.

Given the unique nature of Ascension, a form of democracy was sought that would be able to operate within the policy framework of no right of abode and no development of property ownership.

This has been a bruising process to all those involved. To illustrate the arguments I will cite three points from each perspective.

Those who advocated the rights of abode and ownership say:

• Surely a person has a basic right to live with their family,

• Surely being born in a particular place conveys a right of abode, and

• If one has invested good money in building up a useful business, surely one should be able to retain and eventually sell it or pass it on.

Those on the other side of the debate would say:

• Every individual comes to Ascension on a time-bound contract that includes the type of housing, and cannot expect to “move the goal posts” in the middle of the game.

• The creation of a settled population would carry with it the long term risk of a liability to the UK tax payer which would impact on many future generations, and

• Some form of representative democracy that will improve the situation of inhabitants within the existing constraints must be possible.

These are weighty issues and I found virtually all those I spoke to willing to express a view and take part in the debate in a good spirit combined with a thoughtful and polite approach.

The Advisory Group had been set up by my predecessor in order to do just that – advise. Without elected Members such a group is essential. It is difficult enough for the Governor residing 700 miles away to grasp the nuances of opinion and it would be onerous to place all of that responsibility on the Administrator.  Thus I am very grateful to those who have been able to serve on this Group. We met for some 3 hours in order to discuss the draft Property and Business Policy.

I mentioned earlier the difficulty of investing and not owning, and this policy is a first step towards enabling us to deal with that problem. The policy document is only just over 5 pages and a great deal of thought has already gone into it.  It may not satisfy everyone but I believe that it is a step forward, and we studied it line by line in order to be able to produce a more refined draft for consultation. Indeed that is the next step.

Amanda has returned to London with the amendments recommended by the Advisory Group and a revised draft will be available to the inhabitants of Ascension within weeks rather than months. I regard this as the first step.

The second step is something that grew out of the public meeting. About half way through it became obvious that the whole meeting favoured the production of a concise document outlining exactly what is possible in terms of a new Council. Having been through a rather sterile questionnaire-led process it was felt that those of us proposing that elections should take place could define the powers of the Council and the extent of control and decision making.

What issues will it address? What will it be allowed to do? Some felt that this paper would in fact determine whether having a Council at all would be worthwhile.

This paper should be ready at some time after the draft Property and Business Policy and the consultation arising from it will determine the third step.

At the public meeting I sought the answer to three crucial questions and I believe that those answers were very clear:

1. Are the issues surrounding abode and ownership understood and accepted?

They are understood. They are not widely welcomed but are generally accepted as an inevitable “given” in the present socio/economic equation. There appears to be a real desire to “move on”.

2. Do the people living on Ascension actually want a democratically elected Council?

The answer seemed to be a resounding “yes”.

3. Should the elections be held around May (a year after the suspension of the previous Council), or should they be later – say September/October time?

Again the answer seemed clear – a later date for election was favoured. The reason for this appeared to be that although most wanted an election, there was still something of a wound resulting from previous experience, and time was required to work through the details so that the wound would be healed and more certainty would attach to the election itself.

Therefore my conclusion is that we must take these two initial steps by publishing the promised documents, and their acceptance will to a large degree determine the date of an election, but September/October is the current favourite. At the end of the day I was convinced that most of those consulted believed that some representation is far better than none at all.

There are a few remaining comments that I must make, and although this is a long report, I make no apology – these are important matters.

• In a situation like that now existing on Ascension there will inevitably be anomalies, i.e. exceptions to the rule. One of the major problems with such anomalies is that they are often taken to set precedents. I believe that the successful working of the next Council will in some ways be dependent on not treating anomalies as precedents. Such an attitude from the people will require a gracious spirit, but that may be possible.

• I heard at a number of meetings requests for some form of property licence outside of employment contract to be allowed in the property policy which I spoke about earlier. I responded that I thought this would be extremely difficult within the existing policy but I agreed that the FCO, the Administrator and I would look again at this issue. This will be done, but my advice is not to expect too much from such a process; squaring the circle is not normally possible.

• On the matter of “certain individual issues” that I mentioned at the start; it became clear to me that some misinterpretations of the original intention with respect to income tax have crept into the system regarding one particular employing organisation. But the situation is now acknowledged and is being looked into.

• I left the island with many excellent impressions of the quality of the services. The school, the hospital, the provision of electricity and water, the protection of the environment – all seemed to be in good hands and well run. If Ascension is indeed only a workplace as it has been described, it is a luxury workplace!

• In spite of the seeming volatility of the political situation there is significant stability in the present set up. The public sector budget is capable of being balanced and there is a built-in longevity in the corporate activity. All the major players have investment plans that will carry the island well beyond the next decade.

• I wasn’t able to see many of the tourist attractions, but Jean saw some and was very impressed. I did however have the privilege of watching a turtle laying her eggs, and this is a world class experience that is a major tourist asset. In closing I would like to stress the importance of where we are in the development of democracy. Ascension is an important island in so many ways; important to the Falklands, to the USA, to the whole Arianne programme, to the receipt of British radio programmes throughout the vast continent of Africa, to the economy of St.Helena, and last but by no means least to all those who work there. I am determined to see that we get it right and have a society that is as democratic as it possibly can be within the understandable constraints imposed.

A.M.Gurr

22nd January 2008