Talk show host and social commentator Natalio D. Wheatley aka Sowande Uhuru (left) has blasted the NDP Government for their performance over the last year. Photo: VINO/File

Premier and Minister of Finance Dr The Honourable D. Orlando Smith certainly believes that the Virgin Islands is better off as a territory following the elections of last year which saw the NDP run away with 11 out of 13 seats. Photo: VINO/File

Leader of the Opposition Hon Julian Fraser RA (R3) has said the people of the Virgin Islands 'pardoned' the NDP when they overwhelmingly voted them in for another term at the June 8, 2015 elections. Photo: VINO/File

However, depending on whom you speak to, there are differing opinions on whether this has been achieved over the last 12 months and whether the country is better off.

VI better off since June 8, 2015 elections?

Premier and Minister of Finance Dr The Honourable D. Orlando Smith certainly believes that the Virgin Islands is better off as a territory following the elections of last year which saw the NDP run away with 11 out of 13 seats.

“I think that the Government has performed very well, especially in the challenging circumstances of today, where there have been the ongoing global financial crisis. But we are facing those challenges and dealing with them,” he said, speaking briefly with this news site yesterday June 7, 2016.

Premier Smith said that the party had made a promise to the people of the territory that things would be better and, according to his assessment, thing are indeed better as the country is indeed better off.

“I would say that we have done well in the one year [since the June 8, 2015 elections]...if you look back at what has been done and considering the challenges,” he said.

Failing grade

However, talk show host and social commentator Natalio D. Wheatley aka Sowande Uhuru blasted the NDP Government for their performance over the last year.

“They get a failing grade based on their handling of Tortola Pier Park and the Cruise Pier Development Project, their handling of sewage, their handling of finances and their lack of transparency and also their handling of the National Health Insurance (NHI),” he said in an interview with this news site.

“I would be surprised if anyone gives them a passing grade,” said Wheatley, who recently started a new talk show ‘Things to Talk’.

“The economy is in a poor state. Taxes are being continuously raised and the cost of living is rising which reduces consumer spending power. Government owes many people which again has an effect on local spending. They [the NDP] spoke a lot about addressing the cost of living but they have done the opposite in many ways,” said Wheatley.

Critics have continued to take the Government to task for their lack of transparency and accountability and for flouting good governance in terms of dealing with the people of the territory regarding various projects, many of which members of the public have written off as done deals, therefore expecting no longer any consultation on them.

NDP was pardoned at the polls- Hon Fraser

One such loud critic is Leader of the Opposition Hon Julian Fraser RA (R3) who said the people of the Virgin Islands “pardoned” the NDP when they overwhelmingly voted them in for another term at the June 8, 2015 elections.

He said the NDP Administration is one that has “recklessly exploited an unusual circumstance of abandonment of both implied and enumerated oversight from every aspect, albeit to the detriment of the people of the Virgin Islands.

“They have been pardoned by the people in a General Election; colluded with by the Government of the United Kingdom, through their failure to hold them accountable to their agreed upon Protocol for Effective Financial Management; and no matter what the Opposition says or do it means nothing.”

Continuing, Hon Fraser said the NDP Government has taken the Financial Services of the territory to the cliff's edge, as the rest of the world continues to see the territory as a money laundering center; local small businesses are collapsing from the weight of onerous regulations; and the middle class is all but gone.

Further, he said it is a Government that is the subject of one corruption scandal after another, and is being challenged with multiple lawsuits with little chance of winning any, adding too that it is the first government in the territory's history to have borrowed money for its day to day operations.

“And everything it does is shrouded in secrecy, which demonstrates a total disregard for the core principles of transparency, and good governance.

“A large number of persons, including myself, blame all this to a failure on the part of the leader to control some of his ministers who obviously have their own agendas. All that said however, in the interest of the people of the Virgin Islands I pray each day that things will turnaround,” Hon Fraser lamented.