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by pltm
(PLTM) - Opposition Leader, Hon. Julian Fraser, has dished out harsh criticisms against Premier Hon. Dr Orlando Smith, for being disingenuous in his Address to the Territory on Tuesday. He has also claimed that the Premier has no proper plan to get the BVI out of the current financial hardship.
"What's more frustrating, is that even after being in office for this his second consecutive term, he is still talking about whatever belt-tightening measures may be implemented, which is clear that he hasn't got a plan for taking the territory out of its financial crisis. And that begs the question. Is this what leaders do?," Fraser said in a statement today, Thursday, December 8, 2016.
Fraser recalled that the National Democratic Party (NDP) government came into office back in November 2011, meeting a sympathetic Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), $16 million of Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) money, $45 million Banco Popular money, they borrowed a further $80+ million and spent on the Pier Park, "and the good times seemed like they would never end. And like I said, he told us all, that the economy was robust. Now reality sets in, and he is appealing to our sensitivities."
The Opposition Leader also spoke to the delay in the 2017 Budget Address.
"As far as presenting the 2017 Budget in January is concerned, claiming the need to recalibrate expenditures to the realities of revenues, one must ask who is really advising the Premier on the finances of the territory, when considering that a Sitting of the House of Assembly was already scheduled for November 21st, the purpose of which was to deliver the 2017 Budget Address. Didn't he know all this then?"
He asked, what could have change in his revenues projections since then.
Fraser said that there were comments made by the Premier during his address that implies that he knows more than he is telling the people.
"...I am deeply troubled by the Premier saying, 'Our global political and economic systems and institutions are under greater stress today than at any period since the end of World War II'. I am concerned that the Premier knows far more than he is letting on, and that we might be in for a much rougher ride than we think."
He said the Premier has the tendency to assume that the people are not paying attention.
"Case in point, is the way he plays down the impact the closure of Rosewood Little Dix Bay has on the economy of Virgin Gorda, and the BVI as a whole, by pretending that only the 132 employees were affected, and how hard his government is trying to place them," he said.
"I recently learned that one vendor to Little Dix Bay alone has lost sales valued several hundred thousand dollars over the period, not to mention the myriad of other business that relied on them directly, and indirectly through their employees."
Disingenuous
Meanwhile, he touched on the fact that the Premier sought to blame the great recession of 2008.
"I find for the Premier to be blaming the recession of 2008 for the current financial woes of the territory in 2016 to be disingenuous, and a definite non starter, given his categoric denouncement of the VIP (Virgin Islands Party) government of the period, for their rightful association of the territories economic challenges with the very world wide phenomenon of 2008, but instead he chose to resort to the rhetoric of charging that the VIP spent the treasury dry," he argued.
Fraser said that residents would recall that the cornerstone of Premier Smith's rise to power in 2011 was based on his claim that the Ralph O'Neal Administration was fiscally irresponsible, and that any economic challenges they experienced had nothing to do with the worldwide recession at the time.
"It was the same argument he used to give birth to that disastrous Protocol for Effective Financial Management which he signed on April 23rd 2012 with the United Kingdom Government," he stated.
The Opposition Leader added, "How convenient for him to now be using an event that took place almost ten years ago, even after the United States has boasted their full recovery."
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