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Don’t create opportunities for another COI, gov’t told

Opposition Leader Ronnie Skelton has warned the government to be mindful as it seeks to create new programmes and schemes, as these could result in investigations similar to the Commission of Inquiry (COI).

Skelton’s utterance was made in the House of Assembly recently, while he was telling the government that the RATED programme wasn’t very efficient and that better ways could be found to manage debushing and the cleaning of guts across the territory.

Skelton said the answer to these issues is to assign permanent teams to different areas so they can debush areas and clean drains whenever necessary. He said this is better than initiatives like the RATED programme where the government handles money and could trigger future investigations from the UK.

“We’re running away from the COI but are you sure we’re not creating another avenue for the COI to come and check on the RATED programme? Are we sure? I also understand from what the Premier said, that he has put somebody in the ministries for assistant grants. Are we not doing the same thing again? Are we not leaving people to question?” Skelton asked while making his contribution to the budget debate.

Skelton said it is important for the government to help people but said leaders shouldn’t try to lead that charge with initiatives like the RATED programme, as they put more stress on the government’s coffers and open up the territory to more criticism.

“I am not for putting people on the government’s payroll until we get the pension stuff fixed. So the RATED programme – while they think it’s the best thing since sliced bread – we need to find a programme to put our people to work,” Skelton stated.

The recent COI that was done in the Virgin Islands revealed that there were instances of abuse or mismanagement with a number of programmes that were spearheaded by the government.

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7 Comments

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  1. Cindy says:

    CoI was developed due to miss spending of tax money under the National Democratic Party

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  2. lol says:

    At the rate these man them going part 2 COI already loading

  3. Glue says:

    Sowande believe his brains bigger than everyone else. He is using the RATED program as his personal re-election tool providing temporary employment and hand selecting who he is giving work to. We giving out fish but no rods. Again, Ronnie seems to be in tune

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  4. @ GLUE ~ ? says:

    Or ( haven’t a CLUE ) he said the COI is causing RETARDATION / but failed vto mention to whom ? just like the EMPEROR OF the 3rd district who is more interesting the COI CHASING the COI and interestingly are distancing themselves from the FINDINGS of the same COI •¿• ( we wonder who is FOOLING who ❓️

  5. COI again? says:

    The government keep calling back the same people over and over and skipping others who really need the work because they didn’t vote for them. Thanks for highlighting this Skelton.

  6. Rack em and hang ‘em high says:

    If the government purchases the joes hill manor, then yes a COI is inevitable. With Premier S!0w W@nade and the A$$ C!own Brigade in power we in trouble, then again all these politicians keep getting recycled and repackaged. None of them are worth anything. Even the new ones lose their spine when they get in

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