BVI made gigantic mistake rejecting UK loan guarantee — Pickering
The BVI made a colossal misstep when it refused to accept a loan guarantee offer of more than $420 million from the United Kingdom (UK) after hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017.
This was the view expressed by former Seventh District Representative and Deputy Premier within the then-governing National Democratic Party (NDP), Dr Kedrick Pickering.
Dr Pickering, who previously split with the party when it contested the 2019 polls, has now rejoined the NDP after previously announcing that he would run as an independent Territorial At-Large candidate.
While appearing on the Honestly Speaking show earlier this week, Dr Pickering said the BVI now needs to have a mature discussion with the UK government about its infrastructural needs.
“This is my own personal opinion, based on my experience in the House [of Assembly] when we did the RDA [Act] and to where we are right now, we made a gigantic mistake by not accepting the loan guarantee that [we] were being offered,” Dr Pickering said.
The former Deputy Premier said although that offer may no longer be on the table from the UK, the territory needs to find ways to encourage the UK to help the BVI to get the money it needs to repair its badly damaged infrastructure.
“We can’t raise the revenue that we need right now in the time that we need it to fix our infrastructure,” Dr Pickering said.
According to Dr Pickering, the BVI will continue to fall further and further behind without the UK’s aid.
He further argued that, ideally, infrastructure should not be a discussion among residents in the next four years. “It should be a discussion only in so far as we are happy with where we have arrived and hope to be where we need to be if we haven’t completed the task,” he stated.
Former Premier Andrew Fahie said at the time that the terms presented by the United Kingdom for accepting the loan guarantee for the territory’s hurricane recovery programme were unconstitutional and needed to be revised before ultimately refusing the deal.
Just last year, Fahie said his government did not regret declining the UK’s offer, but Third District Representative Julian Fraser said the BVI made an embarrassing gamble when it nixed the deal. Fraser argued that the move may have backfired given the unanticipated blow taken by the BVI’s economy in the wake of COVID-19.
Copyright 2024 BVI News, Media Expressions Limited. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed.
The UK agenda is to commit the BVI to high borrowing so that it has to introduce even higher taxes, and especially income and corporation taxes, to make the payments of interest.
Hindsight is 20/20… That’s what happen when personal interests are more important than doing anything for the country. Imagine everyone who we vote for to represent us sit there quiet like sheep and let the BVI miss out on it. Not one of them say hey maybe we should accept and have it there as an option in our back pocket even if we don’t want no more debt right now.
Thank God BVI didn’t take UK loan
I don’t agree with Dr. Pickering’s statement. As stated by the former Priemer, Hon. Andrew Fahie, the BVI was not built in one day or one year. Yes we have grown accustomed to a certain way of life but “teking people money” is not the most prudent way. Yes, the Government has had to seek out loans to complete certain projects but we must be prudent in the financial affairs of this territory. As highlighted by the COI. Most importantly we can learn from the mistakes of our neighbours who ran to IMF but their citizens and local ecomony suffered as a result of the stringent terms tied to receiving IMF funds. Don’t mind the carrot they are dangling in front of our eyes when we can take our time and grow our own organically with no strings attached.
But the bvi wants to become independent right??? The governments playing the people for a joke. At this point we are unable to support ourselves because of greed, Politicians when in power only think about there pockets and not what the country needs for growth and security. They campaign telling the people what they want to hear and when elected go in and do a bunch of crap and then the people have to suffer for it. Right now personally i feel voting is a waste of time! Yes new faces and parties up for the election time but its just most persons seeing the opportunity to get in power while the country is just vunerable. we have thrown away our Virgin islands and ended up in the dumps!!
Everybody got vex when Fraser suggested this same thing
He wants a loan to go extend the airport for rich friends. Voters ayo better keep this man out of the house of assembly.
Dr. Pickering is absolutely correct about this.
There was actually a real opportunity to get the BVI’s woeful infrastructure straightened out, at much cheaper rates of interest.
But we wasted that opportunity, like so many others because we couldn’t stand the idea of being forced to do things properly by external scrutiny.
And so, we are still a tropical dustbin with nothing to show for the billions of revenue received by the Government since the 1980s.
…Mitch was one of the loudest mouths against the loan talking pure foolishness and now look at us. But he wants to be this big leader. Little boy go rest yourself.
The loan guarantee was rejected because iot required applicants to explain what they were going to do with the money, why the costs were justified, and then to provide an accounting where the money went. That is not the BVI way.
rejected the loan $$$$
loan rejected due to the accountability requirements
Head coach determine that having to be accountable with the money was too much “red tape”
You are pretty stupid. If the BVI had borrowed in 2018 they would have had access to the lowest interest rates around 2%. With a sovereign guarantee even lower of probably around 1%.
It is clear that Head Coach preferred the income from the “pharmaceutical” companies versus a UK guarantee..
The UK approved a 414 million loan and 13 million grant.
As Deputy Premier for 15 months following the approval, perhaps Doc can enlighten us as to what happened.
Anguilla accepted a loan from the UK and now they had to place a 13% tax on their citizen. The UK, eventhough COVID made it tough for the country did not grant an extension for repayment. This is what would have happen to the BVI, we are not with Dr, Pickering on this point, at all
Rean up on what happened in Anguilla because of borrowing same loan from UK.
I do not why people believe that the UK is our Saviour.
And Andrew committed the BVI to low spending . CVIP set of jokers .
is the NDP accepting this ancient politician into their floundering party.
The loan was guaranteed by the UK taxpayer. It was literally free money.
Accountability to a dishonest politician is a frightening word. They would not even want the news media to say 400M. Because someone will dear scrutinize their performance and call them out. Obviously, the seal thought he was safe in his element until it flipped into the Sunny State, where he started feeling real heat.
I SICK OF THIS SK**T, THATS WHY I AINT VOTING FOR HIM!