At the most recent sitting of Parliament, Minister Milford Nicholas, who heads the Ministry of Information, Communication Technologies (ICTs), Utilities and Energy, again announced that mobile number portability is “nearing completion.” By any fair reading of the public record, this marks the eighth time since 2018 that the Government—through Minister Nicholas and official channels—has promised Antiguans and Barbudans that this reform is imminent.
Eight Promises, Zero Results
The claim of repeated promises is not speculative. It is grounded in documented public statements reported by mainstream media and delivered in Parliament, including:
1. 2018 – Antigua News Room: Government announced it was “moving ahead” with number portability.
2. 2019 – Antigua Observer: Ministry confirmed discussions and preparatory work had begun.
3. 2021 – Antigua News Room: Public statements suggested testing was underway and rollout was months away.
4. 2022 – Official government communications: Revised timelines issued after earlier deadlines failed.
5. 2023 (early) – Antigua Observer: Launch projected for late 2023 following vendor delays.
6. 2023 (late) – Antigua Observer: Target shifted again to 2024.
7. 2024 – ABS / Antigua News Room: Minister Nicholas attributed delays to telecom providers but insisted completion was imminent.
8. 2025 – Antigua News Room (Parliament): Number portability described once more as “nearing completion.”
Eight announcements. Eight assurances. No operational system.
The Real Issue Is Not Technology—It Is Public Money
Mobile number portability is not new technology. It has existed globally for decades and regionally for years. Several Eastern Caribbean states implemented it in 2019. Jamaica did so in 2015. Barbados followed in 2023. Antigua and Barbuda remains stuck in perpetual “preparation.”
Parliament has approved funding for telecommunications modernization and number portability across multiple budget cycles, including a clearly identified allocation of approximately EC$1.5 million for local number portability infrastructure. Budgets are laws. Once passed, those funds are authorized to be spent for a specific purpose. The unavoidable question is therefore simple: Where did the money go?
Audit Failure and Institutional Culpability
This is where the Director of Audit enters the frame. The Constitution requires that public expenditure be examined and reported to Parliament. When a project is repeatedly budgeted, repeatedly announced, and repeatedly unfinished, silence from the audit function is not neutrality—it is failure.
If appropriated funds produce no measurable outcome and no audit report explains why, then the machinery of the State is being used to conceal, rather than account for, public spending. Projects quietly dissolve into consultancies, rolling contracts, and administrative costs, only to be reintroduced the following year as “new.” This is dereliction cloaked in procedure.
Governance by Amnesia
The pattern depends on distraction and fatigue—on the hope that citizens will forget last year’s promise by the time the next one is made. Announcements replace delivery. Repetition replaces accountability.
The cost is borne by consumers, and small businesses. Competition is suppressed. Innovation stalls. Confidence in public institutions erodes.
What Must Happen Now
What is required is not another assurance, but full disclosure:
• a year-by-year accounting of funds allocated to number portability,
• a breakdown of how those funds were spent,
• and a clear audit report laid before Parliament explaining the absence of results.
Until then, “number portability is nearing completion” is not policy—it is performance.
Budgeted. Announced. Abandoned.
Until the money is accounted for, that is the true story of number portability in Antigua and Barbuda