Majority in Opposition helped to constrain VI finances - Premier Fahie
"People of the Virgin Islands are well aware that the Territory’s financial resources are not limitless, but more than that, our position is under certain constraints that were not of this Government’s making – and which your Government has been working hard to overcome over the last 15 months," he said in a statement delivered on May 19, 2020.
NDP members are majority opposition - Premier Fahie
According to the Premier, as with any economic plan, the challenge is how to raise funds, "Anyone can just list out lofty activities for millions of dollars, but the question is how will these things be paid for? Who will pay for them?"
One of the biggest government constraints came in the form of conditions in the Protocol for Effective Financial Management signed by the former National Democratic Party (NDP) as a result of poor financial management.
Opposition Leader Hon Marlon A. Penn (R1), along with Hon Mark H. Vanterpool (R4), are both from the former NDP Administration. While NDP breakaway, Hon Melvin M. Turnbull represents the Progressive Virgin Islands Movement (PVIM), he served his first term under the NDP.
The only current Opposition Member without a history with the NDP is Hon Julian Fraser RA (R3), who was a member of the Virgin Islands Party (VIP) before breaking away to form Progressives United (PU).
Bottlenecks
Hon Fahie, in via listing a number of bottlenecks in accessing funding for the Territory's COVID-19 economic reboot, said the government is still working to overcome the challenges:
- The Financial Services Sector has suffered a decline of millions of dollars due to measures such as beneficial ownership and open registry that were imposed by external forces. The former Government did not implement any plan to contain this situation, and hence the decline in this industry. The resulted in millions of dollars less to take care of the needs of you, the BVI public.
- No serious effort during the eight-year tenure of the last administration to diversify the BVI economy and to develop new revenue streams and new industries that could provide jobs and economic activity.
- The position of the UK Government is that grants are not an option at this time, and the BVI taxpayers must use their own money to finance any relief measures that they want. Former Government Members, including those currently in the Opposition, should have no difficulty understanding this since they said this was the response of the UK Government after Hurricane Irma in 2017 on the matter of grants.
- The ability of your Government to seek out loan funding to help our people and stimulate economic activity is constrained by certain conditions in the Protocols for Effective Financial Management due to conditions agreed to and signed to by the former Government. Your new Government has been trying since last year to renegotiate more favourable conditions.
Premier Fahie in his statement said, "It is imperative that I must warn the public to be wary of persons who feel that they can get inside of your head and play on your emotions so that they can damage your relationship and your trust with your Government and with your positive future."
He said when the VIP Government made revelations in 2019 of how the VI was put in jeopardy by the NDP in agreeing to some Protocol conditions, "certain members of the former Government said they were not aware of these implications at the time that these things were being done."
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14 Responses to “Majority in Opposition helped to constrain VI finances - Premier Fahie”
.... Lets move on!!
PS - I read that story about the grocery store owner being arrested for selling bananas to someone who broke quarantine orders. That's nuts! People would've been out with the torches & pitchforks in the US if that happened anywhere here.