Minister Vanterpool: All major projects halted!
“Today I asked the Director of Public Works to halt all major projects until I have reviewed them and tomorrow [November 10] I will do that formally,” the Minister disclosed in a brief interview with Virgin Islands News Online on Wednesday November 9, at the Sir Rupert Briercliffe Hall where he was sworn in as Minister.
He explained the reason for his decision was to ensure that the projects are moving in a direction his Government, the National Democratic Party (NDP) administration, wants them to go.
Prior to speaking with him, Premier Dr. D. Orlando Smith firmly stated that some contracts that were signed by the previous Government, the Virgin Islands Party (VIP) a few days before the November 7, 2011 general elections will be looked into.
According to Premier Smith, “Some hard decisions may have to be made concerning decisions made by the last Government especially those in recent weeks that were purely self-serving and not in the interest of the BVI.”
“Whatever we do we sincerely promise to do our best on your behalf, always keeping in mind that we all have to live here and that we want peace and harmony to be the hallmark of our administration,” he pledged.
Meanwhile, Minister Vanterpool disclosed that top on his list of priorities is to remedy the sewerage problem on Tortola, as well as, roads and infrastructure.
“Our roads are in deplorable state. We have some bigger issues to deal with [such] as the airport and the other ports. We want to start with the most important thing that is to clean up the sewage situation,” he stated.
BiWater saga“Sewerage doesn’t mean BiWater, it is a different story for me. BiWater is water and we have to review that water story, so definitely we will want to put a halt to it and review it,” he added.
He said his party’s platform was always to review it, which will involve the Premier and Minister for Finance, and seek advice from the Attorney General.
Regarding the loan from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Minister Vanterpool said “we want to make the funds available as soon as possible. However, we first have to know if the United Kingdom approved the guarantee on it, and then there are other condition precedents to it that we have to make sure are in place.”
The previous Government had secured $15M to complete infrastructural works throughout the Territory.
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