VIP still being blamed for UK’s budget request – Hon. Fahie
“Madam Speaker, I am not going to sit down, no matter how much problems we have, and let anyone saddle the VIP that they left the country broke...because there are a lot of thing that would have to be said,” Hon. Fahie declared in the HOA’s sitting held on December 21, 2011.
He firmly stated that he is tired of the message perpetrated by politicians that it’s the VIP’s ‘callous’ spending that has resulted in the Virgin Islands’ needing to submit its budget.
“We hear the callous spending is on the VIP....but as far as I know Cayman, Anguilla, Montserrat, all [Overseas Territories] have to hand in their budget. Madam Speaker, when you are under the UK you have to have respect for them,” he pointed out.
What Hon. Fahie finds interesting though is that David Cameron, the UK’s Prime Minister has refused to send the UK’s budget to the European Union (EU) two months before – the same ultimatum given to Overseas Territories.
Since the disclosure that was made by former Deputy Premier Dancia Penn, QC in Parham Town at her launch on October 10, 2011 that the VI has been requested to send its budget to be reviewed by the UK two months before it is passed, there was a back and forth on the campaign trail leading up to the November 7 General Election, between the VIP and the National Democratic Party (NDP) as to the reasons behind such a request.
On October 13, 2011, the now Premier Dr. D Orlando Smith had said that the UK’s request to see the VI’s budget was an indication that the VIP was spending recklessly.However, at Hon. Fahie’s launch on October 15, 2011 at Capoons Bay, he had called the NDP’s comments “un-factual statements” and a misguided attempt to sway voters.
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