BVIPA fees hike necessary for upgrades, salaries- Vincent Wattley
Mr Wattley made the revelation during the Honestly Speaking Radio Programme with host Claude O. Skelton-Cline on ZBVI 780 AM on Tuesday, March 30, 2021.
The fees in question came into effect earlier this month.
BVIPA suffered heavy losses in 2017
“I can safely say that one of the reasons the fees are being raised at this point is that the BVI suffered heavily from 2017 with the floods and two major storms. The Port was badly damaged, we lost our buildings, operational equipment, furniture’s, computers, servers and a lot of these things were not replaced, and the port had some difficulties replacing a lot of these things to keep the port running.
"Then we had just recently the COVID-19 affecting the whole world, and it did affect the BVI drastically.”
Salary cuts
Wattley said the global coronavirus pandemic has resulted in less cargo being imported and less movement in general due to the closure of the seaports, which caused them to implement cost-cutting measures, including the cutting of salaries.
“The spending went down because the income also went down. You don’t want to drastically affect everyone who is an employee. Salaries were cut, but you cannot cut salaries for a length of time because these people have lives, so the salaries had to be put back in place. So it boiled down to what you going to do? You going to lay off or you are going to send home a number of employees, put them out of work? Or you are going to find a way to raise revenue? It was decided that it was best to find a way to raise revenue to keep the staff employed, to also find a way to generate revenue to do the upgrades that the port needs.”
He said the upgrades encompassed purchasing new equipment, repairing the infrastructure and the Information Technology system.
“We lost our operating area; we lost our offices, we had to go out and rent space which was never part of what the port had to spend revenue on, so with all of that, we had to find a way to raise revenue without sending home your employees or cutting your staff and that’s where the increase really came about.”
$9M insurance payout wasn’t enough
Joining the conversation, BVIPA’s Director of Finance, Mr Claude Kettle, said the BVIPA had insurance and received ‘upwards of $9 million” after the 2017 weather events, but that was not sufficient.
He said, while not delving into details, the $9 million was used sparingly.
Kettle stated that even before the pandemic struck, the fee hike was already being discussed.
He said a consultant had been hired to seek ways the BVIPA could become a more sustainable entity, and a hike in port fees was among the things recommended.
Additionally, with the III Code audit scheduled to commence late next month, Kettle said, the BVIPA had to be in compliance and revealed that part of the audit is taking into consideration the safety and security of the BVIPA.
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27 Responses to “BVIPA fees hike necessary for upgrades, salaries- Vincent Wattley”
Welcome to BVI.
You knew the audit was coming 5 years ago. What did you do to plan for these upgrades?
What cost-efficiency measures have you taken to reduce your expenses thus increasing your bottomline?
As a statutory body have you looked at any short term financing to address your shortcomings ahead of the audit?
Was the logo change a priority/necessity? At what cost?
What additional consierge styled services can you provide for your more discerning customers at additional costs to raise revenue?
Why do we still have to bring a ton of paper to you? Cut out paper and save money.
Any early retirement options for long time staff? Eliminate payroll cost without necessarily cutting staff. The retirees would be taken care of via pensions and Social Security.
More auctions for unclaimed goods sitting at the ports? Revenue generating.
Rent space at the port to private businesses in need of temporary storage facilities?
Noooooo. Let's tax our people instead!
Where there is no vision, people perish.
The best suggestion so far.
There are only two solutions that will turn the economy and the people lives around and, unpopular as they are, they are the right solutions for the ailments of the country, people and regeneration of the economy, and they are:
1) Increase the taxes of the rich and soper rich.
2) Increase th slave wage to a living wage.