‘Politically convenient’ narratives about Gov’t travel will only hurt VI– Premier
The Premier made the comments during a November 10, 2023, press convenience on his participation in the Joint Ministerial Council (JMC) in London and other matters in the VI.
“One thing I would encourage is because I've heard this narrative, of course, about travel; every government has to travel, not just the BVI government. The other overseas territory governments, some of them have to travel maybe two weeks to get to London,” he said.
“So everyone has to travel. You go to international meetings where you're fighting for your interests and your place in the world, and inevitably you have to pay for airplanes, and you have to pay for hotels. And the further you travel, the more expensive it gets.”
The Premier added that he does not think the narratives being pushed serve the interest of the people and said that believing people can stay in the VI and things will work out for the territory will ultimately end up hurting the VI.
Political narratives will ultimately hurt VI - Premier Wheatley
Since taking office, some Opposition Members and members of the media have accused Government members of traveling for fun, talk, and cocktails with nothing to show in return.
“I know sometimes it's politically convenient to have a narrative… I've heard this from the Opposition Members et cetera. It may be politically convenient to have a narrative that there's something wrong with officials representing the interests of the Virgin Islands internationally, but if we ever take that posture, it will hurt every single citizen and resident,” the Premier said.
Junior Minister for Culture and Tourism Hon Luce D. Hodge-Smith (R4) on October 6, 2023, also had cause to lash out at narratives about unnecessary government travel.
“We are in a global community. We cannot act in silo. Nothing comes to us. We have to go and aggressively sell our product and if it means traveling across the world to do it, we need to do it,” she said.
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28 Responses to “‘Politically convenient’ narratives about Gov’t travel will only hurt VI– Premier”
What is the protocol for deciding who goes and how much we spend?
What methodology is in place to assess the value of these trips to the territory?
Where is the transparency?
Asking for all a we.
WHO IS WATCHING THE UNNECESSARY SPENDING??????
No one, I hope, is against our government leaders traveling to do business overseas for the people of the BVI best interest. The problem is how, and why, what, where, who, the cost of traveling, and the benefits we get in return. You see unreasonable narratives, Premier Natalio Sujande Wheatley, but we take in account value for dollars spent.
I see your push back as an attempt to chastised us your BOSS. We're in the Constitution do you have the right to chastised us? You are our servant, not we your/yours.
Let’s take a peek at government travel. Firstly, government travel is inherent to being a government inna remote location as the BVI and is a sunk cost. The BVI government will received hundreds of travel invites to attend meetings, conferences, training, etc., for travel out of the territory in a fiscal year. It cannot attend every travel invite or opportunity out of the territory. Consequently, travel must be managed and maximized to improve governing. Therefore, there must be strict criteria for traveling out of the territory, ie, travel must be selective and targeted as providing value for money. The Operations and maintenance should include a line item for travel which should be closely monitored. Travel is a need of governing but it is spending taxpayers money, so every effort must be taken to maximize expenditure efficiency. Perception is sometimes reality and every effort must be made to demonstrate that the travel produce valua for money and was not just perceived travel junkets. Of course, the reality of governing is that unplanned urgent and important travel needs emerge during the fiscal year and that travel budget adjustments may be needed.
Secondly, in regards to swiftboating, IMO, the Premier should be selective in responding to the myriad of mischievous, dishonest, misinformation, disinformation, attention seeking etc, missives. Doing so may give undeserving legs to undeserving issues and people. The counter to some of the missives is to let topnotched policies and performance speak. True, there is some missives that be responded to immediately. It is a balancing act.
Consequently, the lack of seasoned governing experience is driving our leaders to promote image over form and substance.; effective functioning suffers. Here is a comment I picked along the way in life’s journey in the leadership and management world .Human capital is the most important resource but also the challenging to manage (rule, never use the term manage people, for they are not things; they are led) in a huge, sometimes unruly government bureaucracy. Another lesson is public management is not a profession or job for the weak of heart or for those who want to be loved and admired or for those who believe there is nothing to running public organizations but a little common sense and skill. Yet another lesson is that opposition are experts at running government, for they know everything that is wrong, etc but the reality hits the road when in power, the same experts flounder. They find out that allocating scarce resources, finding money to deliver, delivering services which residents increasingly are demanding more of, etc is distressing and not that easy in a resource poor locale. Further, I agree with Bush Professor in his advice to the Premier on swiftboating, ie, the Premier cannot and should not waste his valuable time chasing down and responding to every mischievous, attention seeking comment from people who are looking for stature, etc. Be selective in what gets picked up and responded to. The delivery of service to the msjority of people speaks volume, for you cannot please everyone no matter how hard you try; it is like taming the wind. Just optimized and maximized available budget resources effectively to deliver the most services to the most people. Several other bloggers have pounded on this point. It is sound advice.
All this long poetical writing about UK guiding BVI to self government give me a break, does your enslavers teach you to take power? They took power by violence as Christianity and guns where needed, the onliest way to take power for yourself is to burn down government house and the people trace John Rankin out, the infrastructural institution of power need to be eradicated to mentally free the BVI. SO STOP ASKING U.N