Pier Park Audit report for HoA
Premier Smith gave the affirmation during a ten-minute public address to the Territory yesterday afternoon, November 26, 2018, and added also that, “in the next few days, I will be laying on the table of the Honourable House, the Audit Report on Government Accounts for 2015.”
This, in addition to the TPP Audit Report.
$40M over-run
The HoA was scheduled to sit today, Tuesday, November 27, 2018, at its Chambers in Road Town, the Capital City but was unable to conduct any business since the sitting was adjourned by the Speaker.
Opposition Leader, Honourable Andrew A. Fahie (R1) had protested the sitting calling it illegal.
The Pier Park Project has been embroiled in scandal with at least three reports citing corruption, conflict of interest and a lack of value for money, in addition to linking the responsible Minister, Honourable Mark H. Vanterpool (R4), to a failure to comply with established financial policies.
The TPP Project, was completed with a $40M cost over-run.
During the 2013/14 period, the National Democratic Party (NDP) administration had touted the cost of the project at around $45M to $50M.
When completed, however, it surpassed that amount, sky rocketing to a whopping $85M.
Corruption
This fuelled corruption allegations in the public domain, even as the Minister for Communications and Works, Hon Vanterpool, insisted there was no misappropriation of the funds.
“I can honestly and confidently account to you, that not one penny of your funds has been taken by myself,” he said, as recent as September 3, 2018.
“You have received value for money with this project,” according to Hon Vanterpool.
The report on the Pier Park will be tabled in the HoA at a historical moment in the Virgin Islands (VI), legislative assembly, when for the first time since 2003, there will be five Opposition Members and three political parties in the Opposition.
Honourable Andrew A. Fahie (R1), remains Opposition Leader and he is the one-member Virgin Islands Party (VIP).
There is also Honourable Julian Fraser RA (R3), formerly of the VIP but who now heads his new breakaway group called Progressives United (PU).
Opposition new comers will be fired Ministers, Honourable Ronnie W. Skelton (AL) and Honourable Archibald C. Christian (AL).
The two former Ministers will also be joined in the opposition benches by Honourable Melvin M. Turnbull (R2), who resigned from the National Democratic Party (NDP) and is now with the Progressive Virgin Islands Movement (PVIM), purportedly headed by Hon Skelton. There has been no official launch of the new party just yet.
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