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.

Drakes_650x200