Bad relationship with Governor Jaspert led to COI
Premier Andrew Fahie has said a breakdown in the relationship between his government and former Governor Augustus Jaspert’s office is partly why a Commission of Inquiry was launched in the territory.
Premier admitted to this deteriorated relationship while addressing the House of Assembly on Tuesday.
He said: “I believe this (COI announcement) may have been driven in part by unfortunate and sometimes personalised political disagreements between the elected and the unelected arms of the government and by a breakdown in the relationship of trust between them.”
The leader of government business is now hoping for better with the current Governor, John Rankin.
“There exists cautious hope that the relationship can be repaired, now that the latter (the Governor’s Office) is under new management,” Fahie stated.
COI does not reciprocate information
The Premier also said while the government continues to be fully supportive of requests made by the COI, the investigators – to date – have been limited in giving information requested by elected leaders.
He said the government still doesn’t know the focus of the Commissioner’s interest and has therefore been unable to assist in providing any additional material or contextual information.
Aside from the documents the Inquiry Response Unit (IRU) has given to the COI, the government doesn’t know if investigators have asked other agencies for additional information to support the probe.
COI places burden of public service
Premier Fahie also said the COI has placed a burden on public officers, some of whom have worked overtime to ensure they submit requested documents on time.
“I am aware that the demands of the COI have placed a heavy burden on ministries, departments, statutory bodies and the public service. I know there have been occasions where public officers have worked long hours — including weekends — to accommodate the Inquiry’s timetable. The timetable invariably requires that each of its requests for information should be answered within five working days,” Premier Fahie explained.
He detailed the scale of the task in recent weeks, explaining that, to date, the IRU had responded to 51 requests for information and disclosed 3,977 official documents to the COI. These documents have a combined total of 72,902 pages.
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Corruption on steroids by government officials led to the COI, not a bad relationship with Jaspert.
Jasper was not the usual last job before retiring governor, he was a relatively young man with a background in security work. He was sent here to investigate and act . The reason the COI did not happen earlier was Irma followed by Covid.
Jaspert was never going to be popular with a government he was investigating. And a government that distributed $62 million without accounting for it was never going to be popular with a security expert.
Yesssssssssss. Soo on point. It all makes sense
An untruthful person has no memory. I thought that it was the NDP that caused the COI according to the Premier. Here it is now! But it’s your questionable dealings, constant disrespect by you, CSC, the speaker and others to the Crown that caused this on our country. If you had any decency you would resign to save the name of our country.
Fast
The COI was being contemplated before Jaspert even arrived in the BVI, while the NDP was in power. Unfortunately the floods followed swiftly by Irma & Maria changed the focus of the Governor’s office for most of 2018 and 2019, so Jaspert had to extend his stay here to continue gathering information. The VIP then added fuel to the fire and the COI was finally announced. Can’t wait for the summer to hear the outcome.
Corruption on a vast scale cause the COI, don’t talk rubbish!
and being on the way to being a narco statelet probably didn’t help either…
The COI was proposed by Gov. Duncan. This has been coming for a long time. Maybe the recent anti UK rhetoric is a propaganda effort to deflect the inevitable conclusion, that social evolution in the BVI has been controlled by a shamocracy only interested in personal wealth accumulation.
Ironically one of the accusers being Albert himself.
We the majority of BVI people stand by our premier! Detractors well always attack and try to discredit good honest leaders!
A leader for a time as this. 4 more years! VIP is the remedy for these COVID-19 times.
We don’t have a trust problem,/ only one of loyalty unity and allegiance to the country.
IT WAS CAUSED BY NDP AND VIP
Of which the people of both those parties were apart. Funny enough those two parties only formed because their leaders lost party elections. What does that say about those people?
Exactly! Remember when the NDP didn’t report a financial statement for, what was it, seven years? Just imagine what would have happened if a COI had asked for a report, due in five days? Chaos! Both sides have been to blame.
But a few weeks shy of Gov Jasperts departure ,there was an article on the news sites stating from your Honorable Premier ” that there were no bad feelings” between the Government and the Governor..you just had different views.. how is it now that it was a bad relationship?
That man is king liard
The government whether it was NDP or VIP were hopelessly inefficient. And no audits so unaccounted for funds could have disappeared down many holes. A full investigation is way beyond time. No excuses by Fahie will do. It shows he is concerned by what the COI will turn up,
The guy l**s so much he starting to believe his own s**t.
What happened to the $100,000.00 each minister was given to help their districts during the lockdown? We were told that it would be accounted for, so what happened.
Last I read it was 300,000.00 per year.
Mr Premier you have to make up your mind. It is statements like these that cause the people to loose confidence in you. You should have been honest and upfront from the very beginning. You are changing your position ever so often. Only a captain in trouble on a cricket field changes the field so often. Will you change again. Maybe it us time for the selectors to change the captain.
You won this election because of you, not because of your team. The people wanted change and you were the obvious choice. You have to your detriment a very weak team and sometimes I really feel it for you. But you have too many persons speaking on your behalf honestly speaking.
The Hon speaker gave the new governor a lecture on the constitution as if the governor had no idea as to what his role is. The speaker in my opinion is as excellent speaker but he needs to know his place. The governor should have told him what his responsibilities are.
Then you have your spokes person who is on the government purse, honestly speaking he does more harm than good. You need to be your own spokesperson. By the way when will the people get a report as the employers of these consultancy. The commissioner surely needs to know what they are doing for the money.
Will say again what the coi should recommend is a unity government for the next four years. But you sir will be deputy premier or Premier in training.
Your comments are well taken / didn’t you see uncle ANDY almost exploded when certain Questions were asked by Marlon ?
Yea, that kind of messed up your little romance…
HIM SHODA B IN HOLLYWOOD ALONG WITH THE 3 STOOGES ( D B**CHUP / D PAST-OR / AND HIS EXCELLENCY THE GREATEST SPEAk-Her