Monday January 25, 2016 is NOT Budget Day!
Some media houses inaccurately reported that the Sitting Notice that the Clerk of the House of Assembly dispatched to the media with the January 25, 2016 meeting date will see the Minister of Finance Dr The Honourable D. Orlando Smith delivering the 2016 Budget Address.
However, when our newsroom made contact last night, January 19, 2016 with our traditional senior National Democratic Party (NDP) sources, they confirmed this to be untrue. “No, no, trust me Monday is not Budget day…I read the story on one of the online news, but their information is dead wrong.”
The same senior source confirmed that they are working on a date when the “Leader” will deliver his Budget address. “It could be a week later from the 25th of January or the following week, but it will be soon.”
Government broke?
It was our newsroom to first and accurately report in an article published on January 9, 2016 that there was no Budget date set after Government approved a temporary spending measure last month to keep the Government running until April 2016. A few days later in a press conference on January 12, 2016 Premier and Minister of Finance Dr Smith confirmed our story by admitting, “I cannot provide a date…it will be coming soon.”
There are also ongoing discussions about the state of the territory’s finances. The Opposition Virgin Islands Party, along with the media, civil society and talk show hosts, has continued to level allegations that the NDP left the country broke following the 2015 General election.
However, to date the Dr Smith led four year old Administration [2011-current] has not addressed those charges.
The Government critics also claimed that the fact the Government is struggling to come up with a Budget is another example of their assertions that the NDP left the country broke.
The former Auditor General Ms Sonia M. Webster, before demitting office last year, publicly complained that the Dr Smith Administration had refused to provide audited financial statements to give the public the true picture of the Virgin Islands financial position. She said there were none from time the NDP took power in 2011, and it was making her job difficult.
Sitting on January 25, 2016
The Sitting of Monday January 25, 2016 of the House of Assembly (HoA) will be filled with Government Statements and a few Government Department reports being laid on the table, according to information obtained by our newsroom on the early planning of the Order Paper, which has not be released to elected Members of the HoA or the Public.
In addition, the Opposition is expected to fire off a few questions to front bench Members of the Cabinet.
.png)
.png)
.png)
Follow Us On
20 Responses to “Monday January 25, 2016 is NOT Budget Day!”
Let's not go there. VIP were terrible.
NDP are unbelievably bad. They gave us hope. But we were wrong.
But never ever pretend that things were good or right with VIP!
The government has approved a 1/4 of the budget that is usually spent by departments until march 31st. They have until this time meet for budget day.