COVID audit has no evidence of wrongdoing — Premier
Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley has described the conclusions found in the Auditor General’s report on the examination of the House of Assembly’s (HOA) COVID-19 Assistance Grants three years ago as strange.
Speaking during the debate on the report in the House yesterday, Premier Wheatley lambasted Auditor General, Sonia Webster, for sharing conclusions that showed a general lack of empathy for recipients of the grants and said some of the suggestions made in the report were even cynical.
Webster concluded, among other things, that while the HOA’s COVID-19 Assistance Grants initiative enjoyed some measure of success, it was abused by some of the applicants who simply wanted to “obtain public funds in order to accommodate their lifestyle or otherwise obtain grants in the absence of genuine need.”
However, Premier Wheatley insisted that there was no evidence of this and suggested that public servants were instead being singled out for receiving grants from the government. He described this inclusion as malicious and unnecessary.
“There’s nothing in the guidelines that said that persons who were public servants couldn’t get grants. So why are these persons being embarrassed for getting a grant?” Premier Wheatley asked.
He also condemned the release of names in the report, arguing that these should have been kept private. He suggested that persons whose names were revealed in the report are likely to be ridiculed and may now be moved to “seek remedies”.
No level of corruption
Meanwhile, Dr Wheatley denied that there was any inherent corruption in the way that lawmakers distributed thousands of dollars in COVID-19 grant funds during the pandemic.
He further accused the Auditor General of having a general thesis in several of her audits and argued that this was suggestive of elected officials being incompetent and corrupt. Premier Wheatley said this was similar to a conclusion held by Sir Gary Hickinbottom, the man who authored the Commission of Inquiry report last year.
“It’s a very troubling message that I see being sent, very similar to the message being sent by Sir Gary Hickinbottom,” Premier Wheatley said. “[The message is] that there’s some level of inherent corruption among elected members and even members of the public, some moral bankruptcy that somehow or the other, there is a challenge with us governing ourselves.”
The Premier also dismissed claims in the report that the Public Finance Management regulations were not applied, arguing that the Auditor General was not an authority in this regard.
“I know persons are gonna have a field day with [the report],” the Premier said. “But I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I believe that the intentions were pure in seeking to help persons and it was a very difficult time. And by God’s grace, we got through it.”
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Where can I read the report myself?
“Denied there was any corruption “
Ha, Ha, Ha.
SO WHA HE CALL WHERE A MINISTER’S MOTHER RECIEVED 5000 DOLLARS TO REPAIR HER CAR?
THE FORMER PREMIER S****R ALLEGEDLY GOT 5000 DOLLARS TO PURCHASE A CAR AND THIS BLIND MAN STILL CANT SEE NOTHING WRONG?
That is false. It says that you breached the public finance management regulations at point 54 page 14. If they continue to harass Hon. Walwyn and do nothing about you with this which is the same allegations they made against Hon. Walwyn then we will truly understand what is going. They want to eliminate who is the threat to them while the puppets get away. I will watch to see how this one plays out. Point 73(f) also mentions that there was no application of the Public Finance Management Regulations in the procurement of services under the grants by any member. All this will be very interesting to watch.
Minister friend from Guyana got 5k to pay off his credit card bill? Coincidence you say? You people take us for fools. What about her mother raking in thousands and thousands of dollars? Or her sister raking in thousands?
Natalio you are showing such poor judgement and as our leader you should be more statesman like. Stop bashing the Auditor because you don’t like the findings! Learn from this dreadful period under Head Coach and ensure it’s never repeated! That’s what we want to hear from the man elected our leader not bashing Sonia again and dismissing her work as if its irrelevant- it’s not!!
They gave one another family members money. All of them did it and then pretend that they didn’t know it was happening.
To fix things, first you have to recognize they need fixing. I wonder what Wheatley’s comments would be on the following:
https://viconsortium.com/vi-investigations/virgin-islands-from-breast-reduction-funding-to-109k-for-living-expensive-of-legislature-gross-waste-of-public-funds-in-bvi-unveiled-in-audit
If what I read in this report is not breach of trust then the DPP and the Police Commissioner need to resign. We can’t just prosecute who want to damage and leave who we don’t want to damage. We will see whether this country is fair to all. Every last one misused their position and gave away the government money for a reason especially to family members.
That Guyanese better married that minister cause he get Belongers when he wasn’t supposed to and now he get grant to pay off his credit card. She deserve a ring for all that.
Welcome back to the people’s news site. There is no news like bvi news. Man possess five natural senses and the sixth is a given. The retated folks in 7 yes I said it RETARDED. Gave us a man who was already void of three of the five senses namely blind, deaf and has taken leave of the sixth common sense.
You locals profess to love tola really don’t see what is there to love and yet you gave to tola an individual who have taken leave of his senses. Some sort of love for country. You have a capable man in Myron as and vote a slow man as premier.. Lord what wrong has the fore parents of tortola committed to visit such a sick individual as a member of the hoa much more premier. Tola repent and ask God to remove the curse. Love you bvi news
What they wrongly accusing Myron of is noting compared to what these cowboys and cow girls have done. All I can say is WOW! Let us see what becomes of this.
so many of those who received were relatives of the ministers, or people who had top jobs
I believe his head ain’t no good.
Webster concluded, among other things, that while the HOA’s COVID-19 Assistance Grants initiative enjoyed some measure of success, it was abused by some of the applicants who simply wanted to “obtain public funds in order to accommodate their lifestyle or otherwise obtain grants in the absence of genuine need.”
What are you saying she is lying?
Is this corruption or incompetence? It’s has to be one or both! Its either corruption or you so incompetent that it seem like corruption from the outside looking in.
Unlike the rest of us who weren’t paid through COVID, any Public Servant who was given a grant in addition to their full paycheck should be in jail!
How tone-deaf can the Premier be that he doesn’t understand how they screwed the public by not reducing Government payroll when the rest of us suffered. TAKE THE MONEY BACK FROM EVERY PUBLIC SERVANT WHO RECEIVED A GRANT!!
This Natalio fellow is the wrong person in the wrong position.
He is not taking any responsibility for anything that is going wrong.
He is not open to criticism and therefore cannot move this territory forward.
Open your eyes and ears Natalio, if you don’t want to fight corruption you are probably part of it.
Dr.W…..you seem to be in a parallel universe if you think all of this was done well! Greed and thievery everywhere but you can’t see it? Wow…
Premier decides to “shoot the messenger “ rather than face the TRUTH!
Help him Jesus.
Remove the veil from his eyes, so he can see the truth.
there is a big difference from “need” and “want” , his response to this shows what a poor decision Lorna made just to get power!
This is what Lorna Smith caused. We got rid of these horrible people and she joined them against the collective will of the people.
Well Mr. Premier Sir, there is no way for us to tell now because every grant program seemed to go out of their way to ignore the proper processes that would have put this all in the clear. You’ve damned the people who actually needed these grants to be lumped in with a bunch of greedy cronies now. Great Job!
If Sl**ande is denying these reports then he is either in support of this level of corruption or just playing stupid.
More than $2.6 million was offered to individuals reportedly pursuing higher education, yet almost $790,000 was granted without any documented evidence of enrollment in educational institutions.
One individual received over $35,000 in assistance for one semester, more than double the national scholarship program’s cap of $17,000.
The largesse extended to a former legislator, who received sums amounting to $109,500, supposedly for “monthly living expenses.” This individual was already receiving significant government assistance through other programs..
Public officers were also found to have requested and received over $1 million from the program that either benefited them personally, or a family member.
The representative for District Four, who at the time was Mark Vanterpool, reportedly awarded assistance funds to his own business. Specifically, out of the over $174,000 disbursed to K-Mark Food Market.
One individual received a total of $8,200 from six different representatives for the same funeral expenses…the most glaring example being assistance provided for a breast reduction surgery without any medical diagnosis or referral.
If this is the smoke I certainly do not want to see the fire.
Put on your seatbelts and brace yourselves, people. A leader in denial whereas nearly everyone else can see that the report highlights blatant highway robbery?
He good in he head?
All those who stole from the taxpayers need to be jailed.
This a real crazy man
So dem seh dem goin feh thief when dem people elect dem. Dem fooly stuupidy people elect dem. Wha ha appen? Ddem dem geh stifffinger , slow brain oh dem fine new way feh skin deh cat, eat cheese and deh rat to.
leave mih mammy boobeies them alone
she just a sugar mama why give her ring. give it to the real thing lil Guyanese girl you got boo
Every time this boi come online it’s a
Always a honest mistake/I should have spoken out sooner.Now you wanting to crucify the the messenger.Sl*man you nothing but a l**ser.You came on VG chat with a new message.I want to all names publish if its for a tire change breast repair paying ex.politicians for living in their homes to buring the dead six time.We had fishers/farmers grant under your portfolio shit happen.You admit Andrew took it from you now you hear bawling like ggoat with tight rope.YOU ARE NOT A LEADER ALL OF ANDREW TEACHINGS ARE SHINING THRU SL*MAN.UK pls.do whats best.
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Ppliticos
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https://bvi.gov.vg/sites/default/files/hoa_covid-19_assistance_grants_report_-_aud_gen_amended_8_june_23.pdf?mibextid=Zxz2cZ
No evidence of wrong doing Ha!
Please read names are named.
For those who are interested a great read yet the premier still insists no proven corruption farcical , when all of the HOA are the accused why bother debating it , they’re safe in the knowledge that they’ve failed to educate the majority of their own electorate and now those who have been most abused haven’t the education to understand it.
Auditors especially here only have the budget to dip their toes into the workings ( tongue in cheek) of Government , the audit has only investigated a fraction of the grants issued and yet it is obvious even too the blind the corruption that has taken place, denied yet accepted and enjoyed by those who claim to have the electorates best interests at heart farcical.
Not suprise by anything comes out this man mouth big fraud. All of them need pay the government funds i am praying for tortola there is more shocking news to be expose. Swande for a big educated man u does act dotish and m**u. U helping to hide these crooks . I wont be surpise something comes out on you .where there is no vision the people perish . U as premier is bad luck for the bvi. Them st vincentian u there putting in the government need to remove not because u …… u put the confusion heffer there u need to be removed the people of the bvi should march u out to much mess going on and dotish man enciuraging it .fed up now .
That man from hey now, ya claim am yall tek him, all a he too. He is a BVIslander.
https://viconsortium.com/vi-investigations/virgin-islands-from-breast-reduction-funding-to-109k-for-living-expensive-of-legislature-gross-waste-of-public-funds-in-bvi-unveiled-in-audit
@Styles you could not have said it any better.
“He is not taking any responsibility for anything that is going wrong.
He is not open to criticism and therefore cannot move this territory forward.”
This is my contribution to the above, every single one who has received our social security money as grants, free money, and as gifts. Those who received scholarship and still grants, whether their names were in this report or the ones before. The British Government needed to launch a thorough investigation and make every last one return every last cent.
But it looks like voting them back in was a mistake. The party needs to clean itself up from head to toe. maybe a constitutional suspension for a short while is a good thing.
It is so disingenuous of this premier to make such a glaring statement as this. One can only conclude that he is the wrong person to run the country at this critical point and time. Just look at the paradox where millions and millions of taxpayers money were misused and mismanaged by a set of corrupt politicians to satisfy the needs and desires of their families, friends, cronies and all the VIP supporters in between. In the name of promoting good governance, tell me how can any of this be justified and the premier don’t see anything wrong with it? Instead of him taking offense with the AG report and ready to crucify her, if he was a good leader he would sit down and analyze the report and use his own judgements. He should call a spade by its rightful name and blame his corrupt team of colleagues for their despicable actions and leave the Governor and the AG alone. Shame on you! Unfit to lead. Big, big disappointment.
NOT A THING WRONG WITH DUDE HEAD , YOU SEEMS TO HAVE FORGOTTEN HE HAD A GOOD COACH ,SO HE HAS LEARNT HOW TO DEFEND AND MAKE IT LOOK REAL / THE BARGES IS A TYPICAL EXAMPLE OF HOW SLICK THEY THINK THEY WERE , BY REFUSING THE FREE USE OF UK NAVY / REFUSING THE UK LOAN AND LOOKING FREE HAND
OUT FROM THE UK TO PLAY WITH , BUT HAD ENDLESS MONEY TO SPEND ON BARGES … THAT CAME IN AND WENT OUT THAT IS THE TALK ON THE STREET AND IT WORKED FOR A WHILE BUT THE BRITS GOT WISE TO THEIR GAME , AND THATS WHEN THE STING OPERATION CAME INTO EFFECT , AND THE REST IS HISTORY
If you do not see anything wrong with a public servant getting their full salaty and also getting covid relief then something i wrong eith your morals. If thats the case all public officers should get covid relief.
IS SAYING )> MADAME SPEAKER , WE JUST SHARED THE DOLLARS NON STOP AND WE MADE SURE WE COVERED OUR TRACKS , SO THEY WON’T FIND ANY WRONG DOING , THE AG IS AGAINST US
this whole report is disgusting
vote of no confidence get them out
https://bvi.gov.vg/sites/default/files/hoa_covid-19_assistance_grants_report_-_aud_gen_amended_8_june_23.pdf?mibextid=Zxz2cZ
put it every article
keep posting link
THIS is why everyone should sit in the street this corruption
These moneys that were given and received fraudulently has to be paid back. There were people who were more qualified and didn’t get anything.
Nothing to see here!
This is so BVI. Nobody take responsibility for Nothing. There seems to be no consequences for Anything.
This is just the normal game plan. When you get caught red handed, denied all, sweep under carpet, not my baby, same old sad story.
Head Coach should have stayed home. He would fit right in with this bunch!
These are the major findings of the audit: 1.2 and 3
Grants were approved where applications were not supported by documentary evidence.
The requirement for the Financial Secretary to review and approve applications for awards in excess of $5,000 wasn’t adhered to.
The Public Finance Management Regulations were not applied in the procurement of services for district/community works.
And what of the crooks that were given multiple grants for the same reason?
Stop chatting foolishness and have a thorough criminal investigation into the matter.
https://www.auditbvi.com/copy-of-audit-reports-and-schedules
Showande is either a f**l or corruption got him blind? A Minister’s mother, sister and boyfriend got several handouts to pay off credit card debts and God knows what else and this fool still see No Wrong doing? A minister brother got several hand outs from different streams to hide his involvement, and Sl**ande still see No Wrong doing? What an Id**t.