Cabinet Secretary, Ms Sandra Ward. VINO/File

Logo for the VI Cabinet's official 'Gazette.' Photo. VINO/File

The increased earnings were had last year, despite the impacts of hurricanes Irma and Maria, on the VI financial services sector.

The information was disclosed recently to the VI House of Assembly’s Standing Finance Committee, whose members were told that Cabinet’s Gazette Unit, grossed $551,686.00 in 2017—monies generated from notices, subscriptions and ‘in-house’ gazette sales.

The briefing was made by Cabinet Secretary, Ms Sandra I. Ward.

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She told the committee members, the annual trend suggests that the second period of the year—May to August—tended to be the lowest revenue producing period,  while the third period—September to December—is usually the highest.

According to Ms Ward, in 2017, the period of September to December earned the lowest amount of revenue due to the impact of Hurricanes Irma and Maria on the financial services sector but the Gazette Unit still managed to record a 9.2 per cent increase from the previous year’s $504,829.00.

Total earnings for 2017 for the unit amounted to $551,686.00—overall, the Unit averaged $45,948 per month that year, according to Ms. Ward.

This, she said, represents the third consecutive year that the Gazette Unit has had, on average, a 9 per cent increase in revenue

The ‘Gazette’ remains the official newspaper of the VI Government, and according to the Cabinet Secretary, “it had been critical and central to the affairs of the Territory in the aftermath of the hurricanes.”

She said, notices and documents for the institution of a curfew, changes to curfew times, “declaration of certain buildings to accommodate Sittings of the House of Assembly and the courts, bills and laws essential to the financial services sector had either been legislatively or constitutionally required to be published in the official Gazette” so that their intended  purposes, could take effect.