Cabinet approves 2019 budget | Now to be brought before HOA
Just a little more than a month before the implementation deadline, Cabinet has approved the 2019 budget.
This year’s budget which is legally titled the Appropriation Act 2019 must be passed in the House of Assembly by April 30.
According to a report on the Cabinet’s March 21 meeting, a draft of this year’s estimates for government’s recurrent budget and capital budget was also approved.
Effectively, the recurrent budget is
It is anticipated that this years budget — the 2019 Appropriation Act — will be tabled for the next sitting of the House of Assembly on Tuesday, April 2.
It is yet to be seen whether that will happen considering that the United Kingdom must approve this year’s budget before it is passed.
In the meantime, funds for the continuation of government operations until the budget is passed is being accessed through what is known as a temporary budget. That temporary budget can only run for four months and expires on April 30.
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We are beating a dead horse
People of the Virgin Islands/the so calledBritish Virgin Islands.
Should we the people be the only one responsible for and passing our own budgets?
Why, in the 21st century, the UK still has to decided whether our budget can feed us or not?
Do we have such a luxury of power to exercise over theirs?
This nonsense and undemocratic, imperialist practice has to stop.
We must take or freedom as they are intent on treating us as their children.
We are not children, nor are we theirs.
After all, even after a child is grown a parent has no control how he/she spends his/her monies.
Why should a country have such rights and power over another? Where are the legal standings to support this type of imperialistic practice?
Had our past local governments been good financial stewards there would be no need for the UK to insist that they approve our budget. Lets hope that this present government act in a way that is responsible and prove to we the people that they can be trusted to be good financial stewards.
Since the 2019 Operations and Maintenance (O&M) and Capital Budget is being tabled in the HOA on April 02, is it safe to assume that it got the blessing of UK? Hope the UK can get to yes sooner than it can for Brexit. The BVI is supposedly self-governing yet the Mother Country has to approve its budget and the Governor has reserved powers to allocate resources where he/she sees fit, eg, former Gov Duncan using reserve powers on or about budget year 2016 to allocate funds to RVIPF, embarrassing the Premier. In 1979 under the Dr. Williard Wheatley admin, the VI weaned itself of grant-in-aid, becoming for the most part financially self-sufficient.
Post 1979, the UK direct aid included constructing Her Majesty’s Prison at Balsum Ghut ( willing and eager to build a jail but not a school, hospital), and partial funding for new Government House. Regressing to constructing a new jail, is it not a better return on investment to educate our youth at the front end than investing to incarcerate them like beast, making them non productive citizens/residents?
Cabinet approved the budget. But is not Cabinet the supposedly the executive branch? There needs to be a clear separation between the Legislative and Executive Branches. Currently, they are essentially the same. Anyway, in my view, the budget should be first debated, authorized and appropriated in the HOA. Budget approved by the HOA, it is then the Cabinet responsibility to execute the budget. The UK is co-signing a £300M ($403M)for the VI and for that it is setting the terms and conditions, ie, an RDA, O&M and Capital budget approval……etc. It is tightening the screws on the BVI….uts. The Capital Budget should be approved separately from the O&M budget.
What is the size 2019 budget, is hit larger/lower than 2018, what % goes to labour……..etc? The electorate needs this information so that it can come to HOA ready to pose questions, expressed concerns, proposed input…….etc.
We need to stop behaving as if we are ignorant a**holes. The UK isn’t approving the budget so to speak, they’re reviewing our processes to ensure that we can continue to sustain ourselves in a responsible manner. We continue to spout about all manner of things except the elephants in the room which are the inflated public service and non-contributory pension scheme that is cash based and funded 100% by Government. If the BVI for whatever reason defaults on its debt, the UK has to pay the bill. Try asking someone to co-sign on a loan for you at the bank because you need the added security and tell them just sign, back the loan and stay out of your business, see if that works. Furthermore, the budget requirement is not a BVI thing, it’s for all OTs.
The British has backed a $400 million loan. If BVI defaults, the British taxpayers must pay the lender. That is why they are so involved in our financial affairs. Don’t ask for a loan backer or guarantor so you can be solely responsible for the loan and your financial affairs. Don’t ask for one and you get no loan because financially speaking BVI cannot get a loan that size from any lender without having a financially sound backer!
Compliments of the NDP
The UK should not be paid back one cent. With all that the UK took from these Caribbean Islands giving back the money they robbed these Caribbean country be warranted.
I am not an NDP supporter but it is their budget that is being passed and the poor financial management started with the VIP not NDP. Lest we forget.
@Neutral true, the budget is the budget NDP was prepared to work with; as they were of the belief they were going to win the election. It is beyond unfair for anyone aware that the VIP was out of office for 2 terms; (long enough for a student to study and graduate as a lawyer or doctor. If the budget is reduced from what it used to be last few years it can only result from the squandering and mismanaging over the past 8 years (the 7.2 million plain, over 20-million in consultancies, over 20-million in lawsuits, serious over run on the pier park and hospital and on and on. Meanwhile the Financial Services alone has been bringing in over 200-million a year into government’s coffers. Hats a lot of money for a 30,000 population such as ours. Also please note we don’t have anything to show for those hundreds of millions. Please be fare
BLAH BLAH NDP SOURGRAPES