“We really need to get our education base in place; I think that’s the key to the whole thing. If we have a strong education background, we can then take that education and put it in a practical sense. Once you have accomplished those things, then your ability to survive, converse, connect and even lead and provide good mentorship, all of those things would fall in line,” said the 42-year-old businessman who will be contesting a seat in the 2011 General Elections.

Allen is the son of Charles and Jenny Wheatley of East End and started out his early education at what was then the East End Primary School now renamed Willard Wheatley Primary. Having graduated from BVI High School, now the Elmore Stoutt High School, he went on to complete his first year of college at Alison University in Canada, then to complete his Bachelors in Business Administration concentration in Finance from the University of Houston in 1988.

His first job was as the General Manager for K-Marks now One Mart, after which Wheatley joined the public service and embarked on a two year stint in the Ministry of Finance as the First Professional Cadet.

He explained that the cadet programme gives one the opportunity to be rotated in all principle departments of the Ministry of Finance before one is placed. However, by the end of his two year tenure, Wheatley was not placed in the Ministry of Finance, but was instead sent over to the Social Security Board to become the first Financial Controller of that institution. At age 21, Wheatley was also the youngest Financial Controller in the Caribbean and served in his post from 1991 to 1995.

In 1995, Wheatley was recruited to be the Financial Secretary of the Government, but never officially assume the post until 1998, during which time he served as FS in training and the substantive post was that of Deputy Financial Secretary. He went on to serve in his official capacity as Financial Secretary from 1998 to 2002.

From 2002 to date, Wheatley has since been managing several businesses. He is the Managing Director for National Educational Services, Wheatley Consulting and Wheatley Construction. He is the Manager of W & W Project Management, Wheatley Electronic Sales and Services and Gemini Import Export.

For the young businessman, his most substantive career achievement is that of the Professional Cadet which he said is what gave him the diversity and the background to understand Government and its operations and not only to help him as the Financial Controller but more importantly when he was FS in training he had already had a fairly wide orientation to work in different departments which was unusual.

“Back in those days, one would probably have to work about 15 years or so to get across those various departments of actually working in them, where as I did it in like 2 years and worked in about four or five government departments including the Ministry of Finance,” said the former FS.

He said the Professional Cadet programme is an accelerated programme that gets cadets prepped to take on a host of different opportunities and the one that he was most successful at is that of the Financial Controller.

The former SSB Financial Controller said at that time when he went to Social Security, there was the need for things such as substantive investment, policies and strategies. He further noted that they were also in the process of the computerization of the financial systems, which eventually led to the computerization of the entire Social Security Board.

Wheatley pointed out some of his accomplishments during his tenure as Financial Controller, including putting investment strategies and policies in place for the Social Security Board.

“We were regarded and still are regarded as one of the better financially managed boards in the world. During the time I was there, we were ranked as one of the top three in the world in terms of our computerized systems and I even had the opportunity to make presentations internationally on our computerization efforts,” he disclosed.

Some of his many accomplishments as Financial Secretary included:

1. As FS in training, he was responsible for the computerization of the financial systems of the Government.
2. Under the Ministry of Finance, they had started the modernization of the Customs Department inclusive of new uniforms and computer systems.
3. The Treasury would have benefited from the JD Edwards systems which is the financial management system, which also tied in with HR department with the payroll system. The computerization of the HR system was also done during his tenure.
4. The Post Office was restructured during his tenure, giving it a new logo, new uniforms and a new operations system.
5. Similar restructuring was done at the Information Systems Unit Department now referred to as the IT Department.
6. He had also started computerization of the primary schools and substantively in the high school, getting them more equipment and software. Eventually the project was taken over by the Ministry of Finance.
7. In terms of projects, Wheatley got the practical experience with the execution of several key projects, including the airport development project, the port expansion project, expansion of the BVI Electricity Corporation, the Beef Island bridge, and development work for the new hospital.

The former FS pointed out key projects that he had started and did not get finished including:

1. Moving to accrual accounting.
2. Diversification and strengthening existing areas, one of which was the expansion of the mega yacht industry for the tourism sector.  The diversification of the telecommunication options and the territory being looked at as the Trans Atlantic ship point.
3. Bond subscription to raise monies through bonds –  he said the Virgin Islands had reached a stage of getting a ranking but that was never put forward further, but he believes this is a very needed initiative today.

Greatest  Accomplishment

For Wheatley, his greatest accomplishment during his time as FS was when the country’s reserve had reached half the size of its budget.

“We had also at that time gotten the reserves to over 100 million and we were able to run the country for about half of the year without collecting a dime. We never had cash flow problems of any sort. As a result of that too, because we had so much liquidity in terms of the reserves, what that was able to do too is make it very easy to borrow, because if you had a strong capacity in terms of your reserves, you are able to borrow more,” said the young businessman.

However, he noted that the country has not progressed as positively as it should have over the last couple of years in the area of finances and those reserves have been depleted and Government is now having a lot of problems borrowing.

The Political Platform

As an aspiring politician contesting a seat in the upcoming General Elections, Wheatley said the most important things about his interest to contest a seat has nothing to do with power, as he has had the opportunity in the past to be in the realm of politics but chose not to.

Wheatley, who hails from the East End community, believes the country is at a time where it needs as many of its professional people that are experienced in both the public and private sector to come forward and provide leadership and assistance where the need exists.

“It’s the same thing that I have been doing with Dancia Penn, the 8^th District Representative, where I saw a lot of opportunities being lost and thought she needed help in terms of what she was doing at the national level. I tried to see if I could provide some help for the benefit of the communities. And while I have gained no financial advantage out of it, it’s a good feeling to know that certain projects have come to fruition,” said the aspiring politician. These include the first ever 7^th and 8^th District Summer Programme and other initiatives geared towards empowering the youth of the two communities.

For Wheatley, his main concern is that there is a tremendous need for a clear plan for the Virgin Islands to show where it is today and where it is heading.

“People cannot invest in a country, whether expatriates or local, if they do not know which direction it is going to take. And it is imperative now that you have to run the country by a plan that everyone is cognizant of and can hold the Government accountable to,” said Wheatley.

“Right now we cannot hold the Government accountable to anything now except its budget.  But the budget is just a mere one year plan and we need a five to ten year plan; it doesn’t mean you are following verbatim but just  a sense of where you are going and how you are going to get there. Each year, we wait for the budget to pass to figure out how you are going to get there and sometimes it doesn’t pass until a third of the year is gone,” he charged.

Time has changed, the father of three teenagers said, noting that there are many young people coming out of college and others coming back from college who are trained in those areas and exposed but cannot make a correlation to what they were taught in school and what is happening in the Virgin Islands.

Speaking from the prospective of a businessman, he said, “It’s not hard to see what is going on, the business community is crying out for support, direction and diversification of the economy and until those things are done the business community is going to suffer.”

When asked about what he will bring to the table, Wheatley said while acknowledging that there is a lot of negatives about his career that people would want to reflect on, he said there is a lot more positive.

“My years and accomplishments speak for itself,” said the businessman. “Getting things done and making money and developing structures, I have been doing so for the last 20 years of my life. I can easily say that there has not been a major capital project in this country, starting with the complex back in 1995, that I have not been a part of one way or another.”

He further noted that there are lots of other things other than the economics such as the social areas that need to be dealt with, such as the educational system, sewerage system and health services to be improved. However, he made it clear that it is not the worst, but noted that the Virgin Islands was always known to be on the cutting edge and is now considered average in the Caribbean.

“My main focus in my political career is to provide structural direction for this country that is going to be positive and fruitful, and if I can do that in four years and there is a chart that everyone can follow and I don’t have to come back and the country can prosper, then that is great,” said Wheatley.

Wheatley is the brother of Lloyd and Leon Wheatley and the father of Jeanelle, 19 , Daniele, 18 and Arianna, 14.