Chief Minister meets key figure in Washington
Wednesday 5th May 2010, 2:29PM BST.
Chief Minister Lyndon Trott meets PSI chief investigator Robert Roach in Washington yesterday. (0963089)
CHIEF MINISTER Lyndon Trott has met the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations’ chief investigator Robert Roach.
Deputy Trott and States chief executive Mike Brown, who is accompanying him his trip to Washington, have met Mr Roach several times in the last three years.
The PSI conducts extensive investigations and hearings on the business practices of corporations and their compliance with US regulations, laws, tax and accounting policies and general ethical business practices.
The chairman of the PSI is Michigan senator Carl Levin, who is also the lead sponsor of the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act, which would mislabel Guernsey as an ‘offshore secrecy jurisdiction’.
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Better be careful he don’t get caught in this ash! Wouldn’t want to spend all the tax payers money on expensive hotels now, would we!
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I say Michael Palin for CM!
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Is it impertinent to ask if he does anything else than to travel the world; no wonder there’s a black whole.
Methinks he should move over and let others do the job he receives payment for,
That is to think of the ISLAND , AND NOT HIS TRAVEL-MANIA
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is it me or does this pic look like the autograph hunter’s excitement at meeting a celebrity?
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Why Deputy Trott and Mike Brown meeting the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations’ chief investigator Robert Roach?
Surely someone with the knowledge and experience of Charles Parkinson would be more appropriate in dealing with such tricky issues?
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One week the Swiss ambassador the next Robert Roach in USA. Talk about cross section of associates.
Next week high profile meeting with Putin?
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Now now SJ,
Don’t be spoil sport- are you trying stop the child having his toys?
His toys being tickets to the world- you should be happy, after all you help to pay for these trips–
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It’s so, so easy to be cynical but I think Lyndon is doing some good work by putting it about, in person, with some of these movers and shakers in other parts of the world.
The real jollies that provide no benefit whatsoever to the island are the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association shindigs. These silly and expensive gatherings are a throwback to the days of Empire and all they serve to do is give some of our more useless politicians a free holiday, paid for by us. Unfortunately the CPA gigs like the one coming up in Kenya also give our ‘ligging’ deputies the opportunity to believe they are far more important than they actually are.
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Martino
I take your point but it seems to me that Charles Parkinson would be more at home dealing with the ins and outs of avoidance et al than Deputy Trott.
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Hi Stephen, I take your point too but it seems to me that Charles doesn’t particularly relish this sort of schmoozing, even though the subject matter is more his, whereas Lyndon seems positively to revel in it!
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As a taxpayer I think it is the height of arrogance for our Chief Minister to spend all this time and money ‘globetrotting’,mostly on behalf of the finance industry,while far more important local issues remain unresolved.
There is still no information on when we are going to replace the unfair and unsustainable(also probably unlawful) tax system that we have in place.It has now been many months since the States agreed that it was wrong and still there is no sign of it changing.
Meanwhile the finance industry and business continue to sponge off the ordinary working person.
We pay tax at 20%,so should they.
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Martino
The Commonwealth includes many small and poor states and also encompasses one of the World’s least economocally developed Countries, Mozambique, which was not even a British colony.
Many of those states also belong to the U.N. and to regional bodies. Some of them maintain diplomatic missions abroad in addition to sending representatives to CPA, U.N. and regional conferences.
Their membership of such organisations and their attendance at such gatherings is no accident.
Without wishing to overstate the case for internationalism, I would urge you to ponder the sound rationale underpinning the allocation of such scarce resources on the part of some very poor members of the international community.
Should you wish me to outline the detailed economic benefits of CPA involvement, do give me a call on 259654.
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It’s entirely appropriate that Deputy Trott should make these kind of trips. Our deputies can chew over the minor issues – and a few major domestic issues – but the key matter for Guernsey’s future is threats from Europe, the US and the UK, I’m guessing in that order. Deputy Trott is actually mandated to represent the island on the international stage and he used to be the Treasury minister, so there’s no reason to argue that he shouldn’t be out there. He’s also well briefed and I’d say he’s likely to be doing a lot more good out there than he could be doing in Guernsey at the mo.
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HOW MUCH DO THESE TRIPS COST, IS THERE ANY WHERE I CAN VIEW JUST HOW MUCH OF TAX PAYERS IS SPENT ON THESE TRIPS AROUND THE WORLD, ?
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Sean, I appreciate what you say about the make up of this fuzzy, anachronistic grouping of nations called The Commonwealth but you have failed to make any sort of case for us being an active member of it. We go along to these gatherings purely because of convention. There is no sound economic or political reason that justifies you and your colleagues going to CPA conferences for what amounts to a glorified party and talking shop. We should instead be directing our overseas outreach resources to those places, like Washington and Brussels, where our input really is to our economic benefit.
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@ Scarpia
Just how does the finance industry ” sponge ” off the ordinary working person? Please enlighten me.
The majority of people employed by the finance industry are local ordinary working people.
In addition the services bought by those ordinary working people in the finance industry are supplied by other ordinary working people in Guernsey.
Yes the tax regime needs to be sorted out but to rush could be to the detriment of the island as a whole.
Nobody in Guernsey pays tax at 20% due to the numerous tax reliefs available such as mortgage interest allowances, annual tax allowances etc.
Headline taxes in other jurisdictions may suggest a higher rate of Corporate Tax but in reality a lot of these jurisdictions then have 2special” arrangements which reduce corporate tax substantially. At least Guernsey tries to transparent and also continues to try to be an upstanding citizen in the international community.
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As someone who is trained in body language and non-verbal communication I can clearly see that Rob Roach is thinking ‘who is this cork?’.
What most readers have failed to pick up on is the fact that Lyndon’s mate, Mike Brown went with him. A nice jaunt for the pair of them.
If Guernsey had concerns about it’s reputation as an offshore haven it would invite those doubters here and show them the systems and processes in place to disprove such doubts, the only problem with that is, there are no such systems…..
Enjoy your holiday at the taxpayers expense Lyndon (and Mike of course).
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Martino
I take your point re. Washington and Brussels and those already fall within the External Relations brief of the Chief Minister.
Turning to the CPA, allow me to afford you just one small instance to illustrate the benefits of conference attendance. Having an Africanist academic background within the field of international economic development, whilst representing Guernsey in Arusha I was able to engage in a direct conversation with Professor Ben Turok. He is a senior economic advisor to the ANC government in South Africa and I sought to explore in some detail the ANC approach to specialist “offshore” financial jurisdictions in general and to Guernsey in particular.
Professor Turok was well aware of Guernsey and of the role and contribution of our financial services sector although perhaps a little short on detail. Given the extremely influential position of the South African administration across the developing world, our conversation enabled a very positive exchange to our mutual benefit.
I don’t wish to present an overblown impression of one 15 minute conversation but I would modestly contend that Guernsey’s image was perhaps enhanced during that exchange. South Africa and its neighbours do a fair and increasing volume of business via local operators and Southern Africa’s mineral and other commodity wealth generates monetary flows which contribute to Guernsey’s own financial success.
I could relate a number of other instances but time and space, etc… hence my earlier offer of a telephone conversation. I hope this helps.
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I agree with Tucker – one of the duties of a CM is to represent the island abroad, especially in political circles. That inevitably involves travelling overseas and meeting people on their own turf – after all nobody really expects the US government to send people here, do they?
So, love him or loath him, Deputy Trott is acting within his mandate as Chief Minister. I suggest the green-eyed monsters complaining that he’s off on a jolly either learn something about international relations or run for office themselves next election. If they are successful, perhaps they’ll get a nice ‘jolly’ of their own.
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Mike Torode never took so many holidays
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Roy Gueno – Do you have any evidence to back your statement up? Also, don’t forget that Mike Torode was CM for just over a year; Trott has been CM for just over 2 years.
Guernsey has also been under far greater international scrutiny as a consequence of the global financial crisis.
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