No legitimate concerns of conflict of interest involving Ministers - Premier
Dr Smith was at the time speaking at a press conference held yesterday, August 20, 2013 in response to a question of whether he was bothered by these questions or whether there were legitimate concerns of conflict of interest being raised.
“No, as far as I know, in fact what I would like to say, is if you have any particular instances I would be able to address them right now. But where there is any suggestion of conflict of interest, whoever has those [concerns] can of course always come to myself, members of government or to the Governor if they wish and these matters would be addressed.”
Dr Smith was then reminded of a statement made by Deputy Premier, Dr The Hon. Kedrick D. Pickering during the last sitting of the House of Assembly in which he claimed that he was a proud member of the BVI Investment Club and had taken all necessary legal measures to ensure that he was not conflicted in any way with his responsibilities as a Minister of government.
“As far as I am aware, any investments that I have with respect to the BVI Investment Club have been put in a Trust or under some other person’s name or whatever legal advice I was given to ensure that I was not involved in any way to create any conflict of interest,” the Deputy Premier stated in the HOA on July 26, 2013.
“I think if you were to look at the structure of the [BVI] Investment Club, you would observe that they have many different companies and various members of the club can be involved in whichever companies they wish to be involved in and not necessarily be in a conflict of interest,” Dr Smith said.
The Premier noted though, that in general practice in other businesses, persons involved in any particular business were excluded from discussions that hinted at conflicts of interest.
Asked whether he felt there were ethical issues involved apart from the stated legal expressions, Premier Smith advised that he did not share such concerns as it was standard practice where any family member of a government Minister was involved in any business decision with government for that particular Minister to be excluded from the decision making process.
17 Responses to “No legitimate concerns of conflict of interest involving Ministers - Premier”
He doesn't know nor care for the truth anymore. We are in trouble with a leader like this.