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by pltm
(PLTM) - The National Democratic Party’s (NDP) Government Ministers were not good caretakers of tax payers’ money, according to former Minister, Hon. Ronnie Skelton.
Hon. Skelton, who now leads the Progressive Virgin Islands Movement (PVIM), said that it is for this reason that the recovery funds guaranteed by the United Kingdom (UK) cannot be touched by elected officials.
“The British Government said that they would guarantee £300M, $400M (US) plus dollars. In order to get this money, you (BVI) must set up a proper system for the redevelopment of this country. So there is a lot of stuff in it that elected officials, including the Premier of this country would have been sidelined.”
“One of these sidelines—the Governor was in charge. In 1967, this country got the right to control its finances and here it is 2019 and we are going backwards, for what purpose, what reason?” he said over the weekend at a political event held in Brewer’s Bay.
Hon. Skelton, who only recently parted ways with the NDP to form his own party, was speaking about the Recovery Development Agency (RDA), which was set up to oversee the recovery of the BVI following the 2017 hurricanes.
“…What happened is that commitment was made with the RDA in order for us to get any access to British funding…that we had to put this system in place; why? Because we were bad stewards of public funds. We had no financial statements from 2007 all the way to 2014,” Hon. Skelton said.
In his comments, which mirror most of which Opposition Member, Hon. Andrew Fahie has been singing for several years, Skelton said with such practices, one would have been fired by their employer.
“You know if you were running a company in any place in the world, you would have been fired more than once because we were bad stewards of taxpayers’ money. So the British Government said no, no we are not passing any money through the Treasury, we are passing it through an organization (RDA) that we developed,” he bemoaned.
Hon. Skelton in mentioning the overrun controversial projects, including the Elmore Stoutt High School (ESHS) wall, cruise pier and landside development, and BVI Airways deal, promised that under a PVIM government, corruption will not go unpunished.
“When we are elected, corruption will not go unpunished in this country. We are going to ensure that the Auditor General’s office is properly staffed and properly resourced,” he said.
The Premier hopeful continued, “All I can tell you is that if you want a new day for the BVI, don’t vote for the old system, it does not work…We must stop as elected officials to think that we can use public funds to get us elected year after year.”
Late last year, the $518M Recovery and Development Plan (RDP) was approved by the House of Assembly, and Legislators had urged that regulations to control the operations and oversight of the executing body—RDA, be established in a timely manner.
Subsequently, Cabinet decided that the House would be playing a more active role in the supervision of the agency, after concerns were raised about the RDA being operational without the necessary regulations to guide the body.
The legislative body now has oversight of RDA’s implementation schedule, work plan and budget.
In keeping with the need for transparency, it had also been decided that the RDA will have consultations with the relevant ministries to develop an implementation schedule that will set out the manner of implementing the recovery plan, and that the necessary framework to ensure this exchange of information be developed.
