‘We don’t want to sell our soul to borrow’- Premier Wheatley
The Premier during a press conference on December 2, 2022, was asked that since there is a need to borrow whether the territory would have been better off if it had taken the controversial Loan Guarantee offered by the United Kingdom (UK) following the devastating hurricanes of September 2017.
First announced under the Dr D. Orlando Smith, National Democratic Party (NDP) government, the United Kingdom (UK) through a recovery and reconstruction package for the Virgin Islands (VI) had promised up to £300 million in loan guarantees and £10 million in grants to support the Territory's recovery after Hurricanes Irma and Maria of 2017.
The UK had; however, demanded that in order for VI to receive the funds, the territory's financial control had to be handed over to the Virgin Islands Recovery and Development Agency (RDA), which was set up at the request of the UK.
Additionally, the VI government had tried without success to get the UK to lift the borrowing threshold in the Protocols for Financial Management to allow the territory to borrow substantial amounts without violating the Protocols.
‘We don’t want to sell out the VI to borrow’ Premier
“The challenge that was had with the loan guarantee had to do with the conditions, which are attached to the guarantee. I don’t think that when you have somebody who is down, they devastated, they have been destroyed by hurricanes you should be attaching some of the conditions that you attached to it,” Dr Wheatley told reporters.
He said the VI needs to borrow but it must be done responsibly.
“So, yes, we want to borrow but we don’t want to sell our soul to borrow and we don’t want to sell out the Virgin Islands to borrow.
He assured that the people of the Virgin Islands “can be guaranteed” that when he goes to borrow it will not be in exchange for the soul of the Virgin Islands.
“We are going to borrow on terms that are fair. Of course, you borrow the money, you have to pay back with interest, we will look for the best rate possible and really those are the only conditions that are practical and make sense, not lots of other things that have nothing to do with the loan itself.” Dr Wheatley stated.
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13 Responses to “‘We don’t want to sell our soul to borrow’- Premier Wheatley”
So, if the loan is £300 million, don’t we squander a total above $400 million annually?
How much is our annual budget? Hasn’t the $400 mill exceeded the amount we are actively trying to borrow?
But wait, what is the estimate to fix our roads?
Didn’t YOUR government take up over $40 million from S\S and give it away without borrowing it?
It seems to me like we can do what we need to do without borrowing one penny, however we need to get greedy politicians out of the way and get people to responsibly manage the country’s budget.
Let start by getting rid of the waste, renting buildings we are not using, dissolve some of the boards.
Examine some of the figures going through the window at financial services, reform, and restructure PWD, BVI AIRPORT, SOLID WASTE, PORT AUTHORITIES, W&S and the entire Civil Service.
Stop this nonsense about we are broke.
Billions have been squandered.
Let the UK advise. Jesus we need help, a blind man can see that.
This man trying his best to save a sinking ship.
As many people and see it, we do need a political leader with experience business knowledge. The truth is that the Premier and some of our current political leaders have already sold their souls to the devil.
Whether we like it or not, we are currently experiencing great financial pressure. We should consider seriously to borrow money to help rebuild our infrastructure to help the majority of our citizens survive in this time of economic hardship, especially our most needy one.
The borrowing of money is not our biggest problem, financially speaking, but rather how we have spent (mismanaged) the money that we have borrowed, and collected are our greatest hindrance to economic growth. We can do better, but change is necessary.