Concerns raised over procurement for police vehicle repairs
The Royal Virgin Islands Police Force (RVIPF) is struggling to repair its ageing fleet due to delays caused by the procurement process, raising concerns over the efficiency of law enforcement operations in the territory.
During a Standing Finance Committee meeting, Opposition Leader Ronnie Skelton questioned Acting Commissioner of Police Jaqueline Vanterpool about the state of police vehicles, noting that many were outdated and damaged. Skelton said he noticed the age of the police vehicles and that most were over five years old. Twenty of the vehicles are over five years old, and 17 are damaged.
Acting Commissioner Vanterpool confirmed that most of the damaged vehicles were over three years old and cited the procurement process as a major obstacle to timely repairs. Vanterpool explained that the procurement process is making it impossible or difficult to get police vehicles repaired efficiently.
Under current procurement guidelines, the police force must submit three invoices or quotes before proceeding with vehicle repairs. The Opposition Leader questioned whether the force had considered contracting a garage for long-term maintenance instead of handling repairs individually. The Acting Commissioner confirmed that repairs were currently managed individually rather than through an annual maintenance contract.
The Opposition Leader remarked that the existing process needed to be re-evaluated.
Concerns over police vehicle availability have been ongoing. The Acting Commissioner revealed that only one police vehicle is operational on Virgin Gorda, with frequent breakdowns further hampering response times. New vehicles have been ordered for Virgin Gorda, Anegada, Road Town and Jost Van Dyke, but delays in procurement remain an issue.
A separate exchange revealed that the government had budgeted $200,000 to purchase 15 new police vehicles in 2025. However, it remains unclear how quickly these vehicles will be delivered and whether the procurement process will further delay their acquisition.
The issue comes as the RVIPF grapples with other logistical and operational challenges, including staffing shortages and resource constraints. Calls for a more streamlined procurement system have been made in an effort to ensure that officers have the necessary tools to carry out their duties effectively.
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$200,000 for 15 police vehicles! I gotta see that one happpening you cant get 15 regular vehicles for dat price
Instead they choose a name and model and stick to that and order spare parts and if one is damaged beyond repair they could use the parts from it, they buying from any and everyone!
Anytime is Changan or haval Ayo gone buy it going be a problem.
Stick to the Toyota brand!
Why government workers have Lexus, Land Rovers and other luxury brands which driving all hours of the night?
BVI is something else. imagine the premier escalade alone cost over 100k but the police get 200k to buy 15 new vehicles so you telling me it gonna cost 13k and change per vehicle? what you putting them in kia souls? what kinda poppy shows really running this place buddy. Imagine you give vybz kartel more money than you give our police to buy the things they need.
Not even that because a new 2025 kia soul start at 20 grand lol.
Them have Nissan, Ford, Toyota and if one broke down, the parts can’t fix another. Stick to one good manufacturer. By doing so you will pay less for a vehicle from the manufacturer and also if one vehicle is to be terminated because it’s outdated, you can then use the parts on another on the fleet.
Why is anyone surprised by this? You sat back and let people come from the UK to tell you nonsense about your systems and now look? We are really stupid people around here. The systems needed tightening yes, but not the over the top as was done with the COI recommendations. I would like anyone to name me ONE SINGLE COI RECOMMENDATION that made life better in the BVI, name just ONE!
The COI recommendations/reforms have taken the BVI back 20 years and that is a fact. We have wasted 2 years focused on nonsense instead of building the Territory and assisting the people in need. The new rules have made things 10 times harder for government to get anything done so what was really the purpose? Putting things on paper and increasing rules/procedures does not equate to good governance, it equates to idiocy!
If our government is incapable of getting anything done because the process have to be more transparent and they have to be accountable for what happened to the money as most governments in most civilized places have to do then I think we need a new government. Many of these ‘Big Hurdles’ have simple solutions. Name one COI reform that you can honestly say should not be happening. some of yall just want perpetual slackness. poor planning in my opinion is the reason why accountability seems to be choking our progress to death.
Transparency and accountability are relative. You either get the job done properly or you don’t. Adding more layers, paperwork and signatures does not mean it’s a more transparent process at all. It’s just like people believe in ‘democracy’. What is democratic about being told you MUST choose from these slate of candidates. We are so brainwashed we don’t know up from down or left from right. Adding more layers to processes does not address the issue of COMPETENCE!
I disagree, you CAN counter a certain level of incompetence with good policy. When you have big money spending and things getting half do and no detailed records for when time come to do the audit or no decent explanation can be given for why the more expensive option was chosen and stuff like that something has to be done. Nothing wrong with putting measures in place to make sure the public not getting taken advantage of. Almost every major scandal it had involving public funds had somebody that was allowed to use their ‘discretion’
IS THERE ANYTHING YOU ARE NOT BLAME THE UK / YHE GOVERNOR FOR ❓️ / EH JUDGE WIGGIE ❓️ HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF ‘ MAINTAINANCE ” WHERE US MARK ? HE IS NEEDED C TO PUT A BAND A OVER YOUR DIRTY MENTALITY , DRAMA QUEEN YOU NEED TO STAY ON YOUR RACIST YELLO SITE AND LET US BREATHE SOME CLES
FRESH SIR , WD DON’T WANT TOO DMELL YOUR FART
look in the station and see how much of them lash up …guess some of them cant drive at high speed
lol His majesty’s royal monster truck derby. idk who staff worse at driving the police or bvi electricity is a close one. at least bviec pays for their own vehicles to mash up.
Dash them a few horses and donkeys, untill they excel in managing their fleet. Maybe E.M. can figure out some inexpensive AI donkeys. Skelly looking out 4 D Koppers, wow!
So nobody isn’t going to list ONE SINGLE COI RECOMMENDATION that made things better in the BVI? Not a single one? Wow!
I saw a police truck on Saturday, 01 February, 2025 carrying a sofa. Thet are being used as their personal vehicles and this shouldn’t be.
Who policing the police?
nothing new they just helping the public out in need also do you know if you as a female call the fire Station and tell them that you have a falt on the road they can come and assist you….better service for all
how you know the sofa didn’t belong to the police dept?
The way they mash up vehicles might as well they hire a mechanic and a body work man full time and keep the whole thing in house lol.
People are dumb these police are barely on the road and when they are they are speeding to go no where. They are destroying the vehicles so let them us their personal one because they don’t drive them that way at all. Police does drive reckless here