COI publishing stimulus audit report online despite objections
Despite objections from the government, the man leading the ongoing Commission of Inquiry (COI), Sir Gary Hickinbottom has ruled that he will be placing a COVID-19 audit document on the COI’s website, thus making them publicly accessible.
The audit covers the government’s grants to farmers and fisherfolk as well as other government economic stimulus given to local religious institutions, private schools, and daycares.
Several aspects of the audit document have been cited at length during Auditor General Sonia Webster’s testimony before the COI this week.
However, Solicitor General, Jo-Ann Williams-Roberts, who acts on behalf of the Attorney General representing government ministers, said she felt the document needed to be laid in the House of Assembly (HOA) before it was made accessible to the public.
The Solicitor General said she had an opportunity to look at the report and was not moved to concede or consent to it being made public.
Williams-Roberts further said she looked at the procedures and found that they require audit reports to be laid before the House of Assembly. She added that she was particularly uncomfortable with the fact that the document has not been laid as yet. She also expressed discomfort with the level of personal data contained in the document and its appendices.
Sir Gary then said the data will have to be redacted and asked the Solicitor General whether there would still be a problem publicising even with a redaction.
She responded: “I would not be able to say – just sitting here – if just redacting the names alone would allow persons not to know who the references are. I would have to read the entire paragraphs to see if the paragraphs actually make reference to a person [in a way] that others can know who it is even if the name is redacted.”
But Sir Gary said, the audit report “has been referred to and quoted from quite liberally during the hearing”. He, however, noted that the COI has been careful not to refer to the personal information contained in the document.
“If we publish the report, then we’d obviously exclude the personal data — that’s not an issue. The only issue [you then have] is that, although it’s a final report, it hasn’t been laid before the House of Assembly yet,” Sir Gary said.
Williams-Roberts agreed and said: “I am concerned that we may misstep if we do publish the information prior to it being laid on the House of Assembly’s table,” Williams-Roberts said.
HOA just a ‘procedural step’
COI attorney Bilal Rawat, in his response, argued that the process of placing the documents before the HOA was essentially a ‘procedural step’ before making the documents public.
He said the AG’s document was essentially final since it was submitted to the governor. And when it’s in the hands of the governor, no changes are usually done after this point — unless in the form of an addendum.
According to Rawat, the documents were already sent to all interested parties in a COI hearing bundle and should have been obvious that there was an intention to make the documents public via Inquiry proceedings.
With the public having read the transcripts of the hearing, Rawat said they will now be aware of the contents of the document, which goes towards the aim of helping the public to understand the work of the COI.
Rawat said he was not arguing for the COI to publish every document it received. But, altogether, he felt these factors outweighed the arguments by the Solicitor-General.
The Solicitor-General, in response, pointed out the fact that placing the documents before the HOA was not a procedural step but a statutory requirement as per Section 20 of the Audit Act. She argued that the COI would be in breach of the Act if it published the document summarily on its website.
Public interest outweighs procedure
Sir Gary said that before the Solicitor General’s invited objections, no one raised a concern knowing that the entire report could have been read out in hearings.
In his ruling, Sir Gary further said he has to balance the public interest and that of others when considering whether to post the report on the COI’s website. And after considering the arguments, he said he did not agree that there would be a breach of the Act in publishing the audit document at this time.
He said not posting the documents now would leave an incomplete picture in the minds of the public, especially since the report has now been referred to extensively.
He said he will direct that the documents be published on the COI website with the appropriate redactions.
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What really is Hickinbottom’s plans. Seems he doesn’t respect any thing about this government. For years we had NO UK INVOLVEMENT and now they all over acting like they contributed to our development and treasury. There is a God above
I think you fell on your head. This is exactly the problem, thinking that because the UK is imperfect that gives us a right to run the country like it’s our personal gig. The UK has its own issues and nobody is disputing that however, the fact is that the BVI is a dependent Territory on the UK and with that relationship in place they have a right to conduct the COI and let the chips fall where they may. I would like to ask you that regardless of your feelings towards the UK and our status, are you really comfortable being independent with the current level of leaders that we have, especially after seeing/hearing the AG reports and hearing the leaders’ testimony? Let us be real and honest here!
Yes I would, based on the testimony from Webster all I heard was the government give THE PEOPLE of the BVI stimulus money full stop.
Meaning that some of our friends, family, mothers fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins got money to aid themselves through funds provided to them from the government.
The Government didn’t give the people money, it gave bribes and crony payments to a select few. That doesn’t benefit the people of this Territory. It’s not a Robin Hood act, it’s corruption.
When our schools still have holes in their roofs and roads without tarmac, how can you justify this? The whole point of government is to act and represent the whole, not the few.
If the BVI wants independence it should have a referendum and vote for it. It will be a kite in a hurricane.
That is slander. Your saying private individuals who applied and received a stimulus as other nations have done have committed a crime.
That is totally false and slanderous. Fact is many people with no relationship to politics or party members applied and received stimulus nothing wrong with that.
They are members of the public too!
Your simply crying because they got an amount to actually help them than a few pennies gone in a week.
What do you mean they did nothing for us? They built us a huge prison up at Balsam Ghut, but was that for us? I guess that tells a story all by itself.
And after centuries of contact and using the enslaved to make himself rich, the only thing he has contributed to him in all those centuries is a jail.
What a shame. Not even chicken coop for learning to read. Where is the moral compass of colonialsim?
Stop calling the slave card. That’s 150+ years ago.
You want us to forget the babarity of slavery? we shall not. You want us to not point out that we gain nothing from after a 150 plus years? Where is your moral conscience? Oh, you are European citizen. That figures.
Is this personal money or public money?
Who got money is part of the public it wasn’t kept to themselves. The people’s money going back to the people in a time when work and opportunities was limited
What did the policy for giving the money state? What were the guidelines?
Comments such as these are really silly
Dont understand why the objections, they printed the list, took it to the house,, its public record…All their bad deeds and dishonesty is coming to light.. They created it, they have to live with it..Until they get prosecuted, resigned or get put out by Britain…cant see them continuing…
THE UK SIMPLY GOT TIRED OF BABYSITTING THE BVI FOR YEARS. TIME FOR A T&C LESSON.
Yup
I’ve already ordered my British flags
Public Interest ALWAYS outweighs procedure – This applies in ALL aspects of business – public, private and government. So what is the REAL issue at hand?
Think everyone has the lists hardworkingfaramers.pdf and dopeseafishres.pdf already and unredacted so I wouldn’t worry too much if it gets published. Unless of course you want to look like you are trying to hide information and make Government look even more like it is not interested in Accountability and Transparency. In which case try and stop it going on the COI web page. Everyone has seen it anyway.
Redacting the names is wrong. Particularly with the so called religious entities that received monies. We want to know who is profiting , and why, when so many are suffering.
Supposedly names listed did not all receive checks. I would like to know if I am one of those whose name was used for thiefing. Supposedly names of deceased individual were also used.
The UK is simply showing the Speaker and others “WHO’S THE BOSS!!!!”….They can froth at their mouths but at the end of the day they will all be exposed. They are trying to distract us with slavery and other talks but we won’t be distracted. The UK has a very dark past and we are not saying we are laying in bed with them but we thank them for holding our politicians accountable because for over 20 years they totally ignored our cries for fairness and good governance.
These guys have no regard for the HOA lol.
Starting in 2011 when the BVI government refused to have known drug dealers extradited to the USA, the relationship between the BVI and the UK started to decline. I also noticed that the BVI government dropped the British when referring to the country but instead just uses the Virgin Islands.
BV Islanders it does not matter whether you are Black or White, a local or an undocumented person. First, we must understand that the BVI was a gift to the Queen, not like the USA that bought the USVI for $25 million dollars from Denmark. The Queen can always say this gift is not serving any purpose and give us our independence. The UK and the USA have political allegiances to each other. Both world superpowers know that they must protect the shores of the BVI. If not, other countries can come in and take over the BVI, and neither the USA nor the UK wants that. The USA does not like another country to say no to them and this is where our problem began, when the high court said no to the USA to extradite those known drug dealers. The USA went into countries and got Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden and El Chapo, so they could have come into the BVI and got those dealers. But they did not. So, the USA and the UK have plans for us.
Oh please, spare the sensible readers with that hyperbole. If these islands were light enough and were transportable, they would be in the British museum. End of story.
What the F did you have me read.
Eu citizens are often waaaay out of touch. You don’t support neo nazi but you seemingly support neo colonialism and slavery. A gift to the queen put that in relation.
Virgin Islands is the official name. Not BVI. We here are VI landers at heart. I don’t care what you think the days of humans believing they own other humans is over.
Also the VI high court refusing to bow to foreign political pressure in carrying out their duty is a testament to the judicial system.
Our courts will not be misused by outsiders when persons can be tried here.
The US criminal system is appalling and rife with gangs and human rights abuses. Why would a court send someone there when they can spend their time in a VI jail, and not in a for profit torture circus.
In a US jail the gang culture will lead to more inmates committing additional crimes and persons committing acts they otherwise would have no part in.
Yes I would, based on the testimony from Webster all I heard was the government give THE PEOPLE of the BVI stimulus money full stop.
Meaning that some of our friends, family, mothers fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins got money to aid themselves through funds provided to them from the government.
BALO IS NOT A PRISON / WE ALL KNOW THAT
Fact is “The Virgin Islands” is the official name. We are the The Virgin Islands. The word “British is only to differentiate us from the US Virgin Islands which were initially called the Danish West Indies.
Check our History.
Them right! The government is a lier and total shame and disgrece on the Primer. This man complained for 8 long years about the other party. Lied to us on the campaign trail and left the majority of us behind in the relay race. 1st district still in Irma mode since then! Make the pay it back!
Those commentators who are suggesting that the UK wants to take control of the BVI to revitalise its colonial past could not be further from the truth. Why would the UK want the financial burden of the BVI at this time? The fact is that the the UK does not want direct control of the BVI, the UK has enough problems with Brexit and COVID. However, the levels of corruption in the BVI are such that the UK is being left with no other option
correctly you are. It just want total cand absolute control of the money.
We did not drop “British” from our name. “British” was never a part of our name.
Can someone tell me why religious organizations needs stimulus packages. Never heard of the church stop working or getting covid, while hard working individuals with a family to provide for are given a just a few dollars.
Agreed as long as you remember its still BRITISH… and a territory at that.
Get from round us with your condescending attitude. We remember you don’t own people end of story.
The lists should be published without redacting for the verification of funds.
It is rumored that there are individuals on the list who claims that they never ever received funds. Other claim is that there are deceased individuals listed as recipients.
These “Qualified” Audit Reports only show that the Territory has been governed by complete ***. Both parties are complete ***. Concerned more with filling their pockets than governing in a clear transparent way
Virginislander, People where are your thinking caps.Do you realize we had a mighty hurricane not to long ago and now we have covid which shut down the territory for more than a year.Therefore people needs help.That’s not stealing that’s been supportive.What needs to be audited is the money for those planes that never materialize but no one is talking about that, but as soon as people get a little money to releave there suffering there is a problem.This is a silly argument.People complaining probably have an axe to grind. Remember covid is not over yet.