He will succeed Mr Ric Todd, who will be transferring to another Diplomatic Service appointment. Mr Beckingham will take up his appointment during October 2013.
Mr Beckingham is currently Deputy High Commissioner in India, heading the Mumbai –Western Indian offices. His previous appointments overseas include Ambassador to the Philippines (and non-resident Ambassador to Palau, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands), Consul-General and Director-General of Trade and Investment Sydney, and Director British Information Services New York. He was a Director of the Joint FCO/DTI Export Promotion Directorate in London, ran the commercial section of the Embassy in Stockholm, and had a short-term secondment to Cadbury-Schweppes.
On his appointment as Governor of Turks and Caicos Islands, Mr Beckingham has said:
I am honoured and delighted to have been appointed Governor of the Turks and Caicos Islands. I look forward to working with the elected government there to strengthen the Islands’ prosperity, and helping to support, with my wife, their rich culture, world-class environment and important relationship with the UK.
Curriculum vitae
Personal details
Full name: Peter Beckingham
Married to: Jill Mary Beckingham
Children: Two daughters
2010 – present Mumbai, Deputy High Commissioner
2005 – 2009 Manila, Ambassador
1999 – 2004 Sydney, Director-General of Trade & Investment, and Consul-General
1996 – 1999 FCO/DTI, Director, Joint Export Promotion Directorate
1992 – 1996 Canberra, Head of Political Section
1988 – 1992 Stockholm, Head of Commercial Section
1986 – 1988 FCO, Head, Horn of Africa Section, East African Department
1984 – 1986 FCO, Energy, Science and Space Department
1984 FCO, News Department (G7 Summit)
1979 – 1983 New York, Director, British Information Services
1974 – 1979 DTI, British Overseas Trade Board
1970 – 1974 Decca Record Company, Argo Division
UK Chancellor welcomes commitments from Caribbean territories to enhance transparency
Published on May 3, 2013
LONDON, England — Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has welcomed news that all those British Overseas Territories with significant financial centres have signed up to the UK government’s strategy on global tax transparency – marking a turning point in the fight against tax evasion and illicit finance.
Following the recent leadership shown by the Cayman Islands, the other Overseas Territories — Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos Islands — have agreed to much greater levels of transparency of accounts held in those jurisdictions.
They have agreed to automatically share information bilaterally with the UK and multilaterally with the G5 — the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Under this agreement, much greater levels of information about bank accounts will be exchanged on a multilateral basis as part of a move to a new global standard.
The agreement will mean that the UK, along with other countries involved in the pilot, will be automatically provided with much greater levels of information about bank accounts held by their taxpayers in these jurisdictions, including names, addresses, dates of birth, account numbers, account balances and details of payments made into those accounts. This also includes information on certain accounts held by entities, such as trusts.
The Isle of Man – the first non-US jurisdiction to agree to greater exchange of information with the UK – has also agreed to join the multilateral initiative. Guernsey too has also expressed a clear interest.
These jurisdictions have, as well as this, committed to taking action to ensure they are at the forefront of transparency on company ownership. The British government is working closely with them ahead of the UK’s presidency of the G8. Earlier this year Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron identified tax transparency as a key priority for the summit.
This represents a step change in the level of international transparency and will make it much harder for people to escape paying taxes by hiding their money overseas.
Osborne has urged others to join this growing initiative.
He said, “This represents a significant step forward in tackling illicit finance and sets the global standard in the fight against tax evasion. I now hope others follow these governments’ lead and enter into similar commitments to this new level of transparency, removing the hiding places for those who seek to evade tax and hide their assets.”
These agreements builds on those the UK reached with Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey to exchange tax information automatically based on the automatic information exchange agreement with the US to implement the US FATCA law to tackle tax evasion. The British government sees this as setting a new standard in international tax transparency.
US targets Caribbean bank accounts
Published on May 2, 2013
By Caribbean News Now contributor
SAN FRANCISCO, USA — Late Monday, a federal court in San Francisco granted an order authorising the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to serve a summons seeking information about US taxpayers who may hold offshore accounts with FirstCaribbean International Bank (FCIB), a subsidiary of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.
The IRS summons seeks records of FCIB’s United States correspondent account at Wells Fargo N.A., which will allow the IRS to identify US taxpayers who hold or held interests in financial accounts at FCIB and other financial institutions that used FCIB’s Wells Fargo correspondent account.
Pursuant to a petition filed by the United States, the court granted the IRS permission to serve what is known as a “John Doe” summons on Wells Fargo. The IRS uses John Doe summonses to obtain information about possible violations of internal revenue laws by individuals whose identities are unknown. This John Doe summons directs Wells Fargo to produce records identifying US taxpayers with accounts at FCIB and other banks that used FCIB’s correspondent account.
According to the declaration of IRS revenue agent Cheryl Kiger filed in support of the petition, FCIB is based in Barbados and has branches in 18 Caribbean countries. Although FCIB does not have US branches, it maintains a correspondent account in the United States at Wells Fargo Bank N.A.
As alleged in Kiger’s declaration, the IRS learned that US taxpayers were using FCIB to help them keep their offshore accounts undetected by the IRS and not to pay US federal income tax on money placed in those offshore accounts.
Kiger’s declaration describes her review of the information submitted by more than 120 FCIB customers who participated in the IRS’s Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program.
According to the Kiger declaration, many of the FCIB customers in the John Doe class may have been under-reporting income, evading income taxes, or otherwise violating the internal revenue laws of the United States.
“The Department of Justice and the IRS are committed to global enforcement to stop the use of foreign bank accounts to evade US taxes,” said Kathryn Keneally, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Tax Division. “This John Doe summons is a visible indication of how we are using the many tools available to us to pursue this activity wherever it is occurring. Those who are still hiding should get right with their country and their fellow taxpayers before it is too late.”
“This summons marks another milestone in international tax enforcement,” said IRS acting commissioner Steven Miller. “Our work here shows our resolve to pursue these cases in all parts of the world, regardless of whether the person hiding money overseas chooses a bank with no offices on US soil.”
In a similar case, on January 28, 2013, the US District Court for the Southern District of New York entered an order authorizing the IRS to serve a John Doe summons on UBS AG, seeking records of Swiss bank Wegelin & Co.’s United States correspondent account at UBS, which will allow the United States to determine the identity of US taxpayers who hold or held interests in financial accounts at Wegelin and other Swiss financial institutions to evade federal income taxes.
Federal tax law requires US taxpayers to pay taxes on all income earned worldwide. US taxpayers must also report foreign financial accounts if the total value of the accounts exceeds $10,000 at any time during the calendar year. A deliberate failure to report a foreign account can result in a penalty of up to 50 percent of the amount in the account at the time of the violation.
The IRS currently has in place an Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program where US taxpayers can come forward and disclose their offshore accounts and income.
A correspondent account is a bank deposit account maintained by one bank for another bank. Financial transactions involving US dollars flow through US banks. Therefore, foreign banks that do business in US dollars, but have no office in the US, obtain a correspondent account at a US bank in order to engage in such transactions.
These transactions leave a trail in the US that the IRS can access through the records of the correspondent bank accounts. These correspondent bank accounts have records of money deposited, money paid out through checks and money moved through the correspondent account by wire transfers. All of this information the IRS can obtain through a John Doe summons issued to the US bank holding the correspondent account.
“The Plea and Directions Hearing in this case has been adjourned to September 16th. I have made it clear that I will not comment on the evidence in this case or on any other issue that is for the court of trial to decide, except that where it is right to do so, I will correct mis statements made in public by other people and will https://epusenergy.com/slot-gacor/ also provide as much information as I can about the proceedings.
“There are currently 10 defendants awaiting trial before the Supreme Court. In May 2012 all of them were sent RTP Live for trial on all charges by Justice Ramsey Hale.
Before a trial date can be fixed there are several preliminary matters that need to be decided by the Slot Habanero trial Judge in Plea and Directions Hearings. The prosecution have been ready to conduct a Hearing since July 2012 and all the necessary evidence and written submissions have been served on the accused.
“The reason for the continued delay is that the majority of the accused have applied for and been granted legal aid but have rejected the rates fixed by the Registrar and challenged Slot Pragmatic that decision by applying for Judicial Review. The SIPT had no involvement in the Legal Aid decision, this was a matter between the accused and the Registrar.
However, we have been joined to the Judicial Review Bocoran Slot Gacor Malam Ini proceedings as an interested party. The application for judicial review was rejected after a hearing before on 8th November 2012. An appeal was also rejected unanimously by the Court of Appeal on 24th January 2013.
“The accused concerned are now applying for leave to appeal to the Privy Council. That application has not yet been made. If they are refused permission to appeal by the Court of Appeal, they have the right to renew their application directly to the Privy Slot Gacor Council and it could therefore be some months before this matter is resolved finally.
“The accused have the right to exhaust all legal avenues of appeal but there should be no Slot Gacor Pragmatic misunderstanding that however long it may take, the law must take its course and there will be a trial.
“As to the position of Michael Misick, his claim for political asylum is being dealt with in accordance with Brazilian law and the SIPT and the AG are not parties to that process. The request for his RTP Slot Tertinggi Hari Ini extradition could not be dealt with until the asylum claim was decided. The claim had been refused at first instance but he had lodged an appeal to the Minister for Justice.
However there should also be no misunderstanding first that, however RTP Slot Tertinggi long it may take, if Michael Misick is returned to the TCI, he will stand trial and second that in the meantime the trial of his co accused will continue.”
Governor marks Grand Turk hospital third anniversary
Published on April 15, 2013
On Wednesday, Governor Ric Todd visited the Cockburn Town Medical Centre in Grand Turk to mark the third anniversary of his predecessor, Gordon Wetherell, officially opening the facility three years ago.
The governor was accompanied throughout his visit by Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) government permanent secretary in the ministry of health, Desiree Lewis. They were joined on their visit by director of health services, Dr Nadia Astwood, InterHealth’s CEO Jill Magri, Cockburn Town Medical Center hospital administrator Dr Denise Braithwaite, engineer Donald Wilson and internist Dr Ravindra.
Todd heard how over the past three years the hospital has treated: 86,810 accident and emergency visits; 5,914 inpatient admissions; 141,375 outpatient visit; 1,462 inpatient and 1,948 day surgeries.
Some of the benefits and improvements of the new hospital over its predecessor include:
• The cost of overseas treatment has fallen from $60m to $10m each year.
• The ability to deliver local orthopedic services with an in-house surgeon, reducing overseas costs; as well as oncology services and reconstructive plastic surgery services.
• An improved international reputation – the hospital was quoted in a major meeting in Trinidad and Tobago last summer as an example of excellence, and awarded Diamond Accreditation by Accreditation Canada.
• A first class diagnostics service, enabling better diagnosis and, where patient required overseas transfer, the provision of clinical information / images essential for the receiving centre. There was no on-island radiologist or pathologist prior to the opening of the hospital.
• Development of locally provided urology services using the skills of a UK trained practitioner with a strong regional reputation.
• High patient satisfaction levels.
• The hospitals’ teleconference capabilities support Ministry of Health work between the TCI islands.
“While the challenges of the cost of healthcare provision are a challenge to governments all over the world, today was an occasion to pause and reflect on how much healthcare has improved here in the TCI in recent times,” said Todd. “What I saw today were happy, satisfied patients and caring, hard working health professionals doing a great job.”
Lewis also explained to the governor the TCI government’s plans for the development of long term care and hospice facilities, which would release the Wellness Centre, located on the site of the previous hospital, to be developed for other uses such as psychiatry. Other developments under discussion include: expanding ophthalmology, mammography, echocardiography, neurophysiology, blood donor and transfusion facilities as well as looking to build a medical tourism offering.
Turks and Caicos still has one of lowest crime rates in region, says police commissioner
Published on April 15, 2013,Caribbean News Now
PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos Islands — Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force Commissioner Colin Farquhar has stated that the TCI still has one of the lowest crime rates in the region and has excellent success in solving crimes.
The territory recently had a spike in violent crime that was quickly countered with investigative and https://www.datdut.com/ patrol initiatives, which that had very positive affects in reducing crime.
Two high profile cases that received international attention have been successfully investigated and resulted in suspects being charged and remanded until June 7, 2013, at which time they will appear in the Supreme Court for a sufficiency hearing.
Various other investigations have led to crimes being detected in a matter of a few short days.
The commissioner acknowledged officers for their tireless efforts and for utilising sound police investigative strategies in apprehending the alleged suspects responsible for the crimes. He also thanked the community, businesses, and government for their assistance and support.
“It is realised that strong partnerships are imperative to ensuring a safe and secure society for our citizens as well as our visitors. The recent successes can be attributed to this,” Farquhar said.
The commissioner nevertheless stressed that residents and visitors must continue to exercise proper precautions and have an awareness of their surroundings, as it is recognised that there are still individuals who will take advantage of situations and persons to further their criminal enterprise.
The police will be initiating a program to work closer with hotel security officers, managers and other tourism related personnel on crime prevention. This is an addition to other special initiatives already in place, which have had positive outcomes.
Gord Henderson, The Windsor Star
| Apr 06, 2013 | Last Updated: Apr 06, 2013
Canadians, proud but perennially shivering occupants of the Great Northern Meat Locker, must have been suffering from chilblains of the brain when we chose to look the other way while an opportunity to claim a hot and juicy slice of paradise was dangled under our drippy noses.
It boggles the mind, seeing the Turks and Caicos Islands for the first time from the window of a Brazilian-built Air Canada jet, looking down on a riot of blues, greens, turquoises and pastels, to think we let this 40-island splash of sand, sun and serenity in the Atlantic south of the Bahamas slip away when it coveted an intimate relationship with Canada that could have included vows of marriage.
Seriously? We let this suitor go without even trying? In nixing an engagement with TCI, as the locals call it, we doomed ourselves as a polar nation to forever being the polite paying guests in someone else’s tropical retreat because we lacked the chutzpah to seal the deal on our own place in the sun.
A lot of folks have never heard of the British Overseas Territory known as Turks and Caicos Islands. That might explain why mail bound for island businesses sometimes ends up in Istanbul, Turkey. But for Canadians who enjoy a bit of history, the tiny island chain, population a mere 32,000, is a curious case of what might have been if only an unassuming Canada had been willing to extend its reach beyond the 10 provinces and three northern territories.
Canada did have visionaries who saw the possibilities. Sir Robert Borden, the PM on our $100 bill, tried to persuade Great Britain at the end of the First World War to place some of its Western Hemisphere possessions, including the Turks and Caicos Islands, in Canada’s loving care. His proposal was given the brush-off by British prime minister Lloyd George at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference where triumphant global powers were busy sowing the seeds for the next world war.
And then there was Max. In 1974 Max Saltsman, an RCAF veteran and New Democratic MP for the Waterloo region, introduced a private member’s bill calling for Canada to annex a more than willing Turks and Caicos Islands.
His proposal, sadly, never made it to a vote. Critics dismissed it as a hare-brained idea, inconsistent with Canada’s high-minded stand against colonialism during the Pierre Trudeau years – even with as many as 90 per cent of islanders in favour of some kind of association with Canada. Fears were also expressed that the island chain, as Canadian territory, could become an open door for illegal immigration from the Caribbean. Other federal politicians took up the cause over the years. And yet it never goes beyond chatter.
Some would say that’s a good thing, given the difficulties the Turks and Caicos has faced in recent years. A longtime sleepy backwater, it experienced dazzling growth in the early 2000s, especially on the main island of Providenciales which became a leading destination for jet-setters and celebrities, creating a construction boom in upscale hotel/condo towers, shops and restaurants. The place looks more like South Florida than the Caribbean.
That’s history. The boom came to a screeching halt with the Great Recession and the end of good times and easy money. The cranes are gone, along with thousands of imported construction workers. The business headlines say it all. The Economist: “Paradise Interrupted.” The Independent: “An Economic Free-for-all that veiled a culture of corruption.” And this from the Caribbean Centre for Money and Finance: “Turks and Caicos Economy in Meltdown – Paradise Suspended.”
In 2009, appalled by reports of massive government corruption, the British government reasserted direct control over the essentially bankrupt colony and has been footing the bill for basic government services while it tries to have the former premier extradited from Brazil to face corruption charges.
In other words, it’s a right royal mess. Not that your average visitor would notice. Tourists continue to pour in, enticed by 350 days of warm sunshine annually and by 12 km of glittering white sand on Grace Bay, repeatedly listed as the world’s best beach. The island is too rocky and arid to be pretty. But the beaches, reefs and restaurants? In a league of their own.
Here’s the strange thing. Canada, officially, has never climbed in bed with Turks and Caicos. On the ground, it’s a different story. A Canadian company provides the power. The hospital is Canadian operated. The two most senior police officials (on loan) are former RCMP officers. Canadians own and operate hotels, restaurants and recreation and adventure companies. The head of the real estate board is a Canadian.
It doesn’t show on a map. There are no boasting rights. But we’ve slipped in and quietly made ourselves right at home. I suppose that’s the Canadian way.
Grand Turk losing millions
Published on April 3, 2013,in TCI News Now
Grand Turk’s economy has lost millions of dollars in economic activity as a result of the recent outbreak of gastroenteritis at the cruise port, which is owned by the Carnival Corporation.
Almost three weeks have elapsed since cruise ships discontinued berthing at the facility for fear of passengers disembarking on the island contracting the virus. The outbreak also appears to be spreading to the rest of the island, as more residents are reportedly coming down with the sickness.
The health department and tourist board have issued press releases describing their efforts in attempting to isolate and contain the outbreak. One possible source of the outbreak is thought to be in the water supply; however, this theory has not been proven as public health authorities wait on test results.
Problems with the sewage system at the cruise port are another possible cause and sources on Grand Turk report that a recently commenced excavation of the sewage system has been covered by temporary posts and plastic cloth. Security guards are posted, keeping locals from coming close to the site.
What appears to have happened is that gray water effluent is being contaminated by the sewage system.
The latest estimate for completion of the repairs and sanitization is another seven to ten days. It is understood that Carnival executives will be arriving on Wednesday or Thursday to meet with Premier Rufus Ewing and be interviewed on a Radio Turks and Caicos broadcast.
One concerned resident of Grand Turk said that the situation on that island is worsening as cruise ships were the only thing that kept the island advancing, noting that it would be a big setback for Grand Turk if the situation persists.
Carnival Corporation has been plagued with a number of unfortunate incidents over the past two years. In December 2011, the Costa Concordia capsized in the Mediterranean, while just a few months ago an engine failure resulted in one its cruise ships losing all power in the Gulf of Mexico.
Carnival has a number of ports of call throughout the Caribbean and is developing attractions in neighbouring Dominican Republic; however, the Grand Turk cruise centre has enjoyed a steady increase over the years since its opening in 2004.
The TCI government relies on Carnival’s head tax to help meet its budgetary obligations with over $3 million in annual receipts coming from arriving passengers. It is estimated that the economic impact for Grand Turk is some $250,000 per day in activity.
The cruise port has been hosting six to eight ship arrivals per week. The ships each carry between 2,500 and 3,500 passengers and it is believed that 90 percent of the passengers disembark the ship and visit the welcome centre. Approximately 20 percent of the passengers take taxis to visit other sites on the capital island.
