ANTIGUA | OBSERVATION: Paying $75 million to learn says D.Gisele Isaac

ST. JOHN'S Antigua, June 17, 2025 - So the latest word is that our already imperiled Social Security Scheme is to become the cash-cow for refurbishing and expanding the aged Jolly Beach Resort; and if we’re even thinking about stopping Cabinet’s plans, we’ve been put on notice that the law will be amended to thwart us.

But wait: Doesn’t the money in the Social Security Scheme – the sweat of our brow and our employers’ obligation – belong to us?  And aren’t we owed by the Government to the tune of much more than $75 million already?  So wouldn’t a grand scheme (and I use that word advisedly) like this demand some sort of consultation with us first?

Why is it that – after the repeated boasts of how well this country is doing financially;  of record profits at the port; of amazing numbers of air arrivals and cruise passengers – we, The People, are always being gouged “to give you more to receive your less,” as Bob Marley would say?

No water? Well, we’re going to have to increase water rates.    Deplorable roads? Well, you’re going to have to pay 40% more to drive on them. Need the new cemetery opened? Guess we’re going to have go “dead broke” for that to happen.

This latest decree by the Cabinet comes at a particularly sensitive time: Just after the three “government-side” MPs on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) thumbed their noses at the taxpayers once again.  Just as an Opposition spokesperson outed the Administration's gross and unlawful overspending (on what we do not know) by the Ministry of Public Works over several years, clearly with the knowledge (if not approval) of the Ministry of Finance – a symbiotic relationship, one might kindly say.  

Just as weary workers are being warned that the pension age will be pushed back again, to age 67. And just in time for the American people’s mass declaration of “No Kings” in the face of their president’s repeated attempts to act like a monarch.

It also gives me cause to wonder whether – after we, The People, have spent $75 million of our age pensions, maternity and survivors’ benefits, sick-leave pay, etc. on this resort – we will be allowed access to the beach that we inherited, debt-free, from our ancestors. 

Or will there be a buffer zone?  And will ordinary local families even be able to afford the stay-cations we used to enjoy on a holiday weekend?

I don’t know about you, but I don’t believe that Government should be a competitor in the tourism industry, and I have no confidence at all in this Administration’s ability to run any such business. 

A few years ago when there was talk about NAMCO (whatever has become of that?) taking over Jolly Beach, I remember an industry insider asking whether we believed the hotel, run by this Administration, would even be viable. 

He warned of rooms booked and meals ordered for extramarital trysts and of meeting facilities engaged but never invoiced – simply because the property was owned by Government, which has a well-known reputation for “trust and no pay.”

But we don’t have to be insiders to ask which government entity, at present, would inspire any confidence, at all, in this Administration’s ability to run a resort.  We have an airport whose escalator was down for years, not so? 

A hospital that is famously under-equipped and under-supplied. Community clinics: Same so. Police stations short of everything that matters.  A utilities authority whose services are hit or miss: more often than not, miss.  A city that is two centimeters short of dereliction… . I could go on, but you get the picture.

Now, consider this: The United States has put this Administration in a bind. Because of the gross mishandling of our CIP, we’ve been given Hobson’s Choice: Fix it ASAP or be slapped with a travel ban.  BUT: If the Cabinet agrees to accept third-country deportees, the US authorities will ease us up. I can hardly wait to hear what decisions the Executive will make….

But, seriously, with this type of threat hanging over us – and remember the US is capable of blacklisting us as a travel destination – is this the time to put Social Security funds at risk?

This country is littered with the skeletons AND the unfulfilled promises of so many resorts and tourism projects. Too many in this small country.  And bitter experience has taught us that when they fail, it is we, The People, who pay the price in lost jobs, unpaid severance, and economic fallout.

Why should we have to pay $75 million, punching a hole in our supposed safety net, to learn?  In 2014, we lost $37 million, it is reported, by this Administration’s money-grab from the Medical Benefits Scheme.  Are we prepared to lose twice that amount this time?

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