Above: the Turks and Caicos House of Assembly

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Stephen Turnbull has officially taken up the position of Chief Financial Officer of the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Governor’s office announced.

Turnbull, who succeeds former CFO Hugh McGarel-Groves, said public finances in the territory ended the first quarter with an operating surplus of $47.6 million, up $85.7 million from the same period in 2012.

Much of that came from approximately $28.2 million in civil recoveries related to the SIPT investigation.

“These figures are the result of great deal of hard work and some difficult decisions — they reveal the strength of the vastly improved public finances and the positive inheritance provided to the new elected government,” Turnbull said in a statement. “They also show that there are significant one-off payments made to TCIG that boosted the figures which, taken together with the considerable improvements in the fiscal situation, have enabled us to build up over $41m in the sinking fund which will be used to pay off the debts incurred by the previous elected government.”

The CFO warned that the TCI could not “rest on these laurels,” however.

“It retains an unsustainable level of debt that will not be financeable when the UK’s guarantee period ends in 2016 without a good track record of sound financial management and a substantially larger sinking fund,” he said. “I know from discussions in Cabinet that the importance of sustaining and developing these improvements and maintaining a strong fiscal position is a joint priority.”