Empty kitty? Rymer bemoans limited project funds
Communications and Works Minister, Kye Rymer, has suggested that there may be some misconceptions on the part of persons who look at the territory’s large annual budget and question the state of the territory’s infrastructure.
As he addressed colleagues in the House of Assembly recently, Rymer expressed that he, too, has learned some valuable lessons after serving his first term in office as a government minister.
“It was four years ago when I stood here excited; excited about addressing the concerns of our territory. But it’s only when you get there you understand how things work,” the Works Minister said.
Rymer pointed to the territory’s nearly $400 million annual budget and suggested that the magnitude may be misleading to some observers. He argued that while it sounded good to hear that the government has hundreds of millions at its disposal each year, very little of that budget is directed to his ministry to execute projects.
“I just want persons to know, for development projects in my ministry – that includes water, roads, the administration complex, Burt Point sewerage plant, East End/Long Look sewerage plant – we only get 12 to 16 million of that annually to get anything done,” Rymer said.
Despite this fact, however, Rymer said he felt his Ministry still made some progress during his first term in office. However, he stressed that there is still a lot left to be done.
“I just want it to be known that it’s not for a lack of wanting to get these things done, but it’s because… you can only spend what you have,” the minister said.
He added: “But I know my good Minister of Finance has committed to getting some money so that we can achieve all these outstanding issues.”
Rymer said his ministry will focus on improving the territory’s water supply, sewerage system and developing renewable energy. This, he noted, is expected to be done in conjunction with road improvement, enhancing transportation, and improving the city of Road Town.
Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley acknowledged recently that the government will have to seek loan funding to execute some of the badly-needed infrastructure projects of the territory.
“[The current state] doesn’t reflect our economy and it doesn’t reflect what it is we want for ourselves,” the Premier said. “So we’re very much committed to borrowing, to improving our infrastructure and giving us that world-class infrastructure that our people deserve.”
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The money is wasted. Given to friends. Disclose all petty Contracts over the last two years. Who to, for what work and scope of work. You will find wastage at road repairs, bush trimming and elsewhere. The state of public services; roads, water, electricity and sewage is a national; disgrace. Get value for work. Wake up
Just another speed bump. Speed bump after another. 16M out of 400M is rediculous for infrastructure projects. That’s barely enough for general maintenance. Cut all the lucrative deals and borrow money for the infrastructure. No more speed bump management.
The Government only has limited funds so we cant get much done,we can only spend what we have.
When the greedy bill came out and you do the maths, you will find that’s alot of money to be coming out of the government coffers. Where would all that money be coming from for all those salaries if we dont have much and yet we dont have enough to fix our basic country needs.
If you all were to spend the tax payers money judiciously, instead of giving it to friends who are not qualified to carry out certain works, you won’t be here talking nonsense. Stop The Waste!!!!.
IT MUST BE EMPTY BY NOW AFTER HE WASTED 1.7 MILLION DOLLARS ON THE MARKET AND OVER 1 MILLION DOLLARS FOR AN ELEVATOR THAT ONLY GOES UP 2 FLOORS.
Millions spent.
But moving the PS like it was all his fault when all the PS was doing was following his directives. People going learn about you.
Tell us how you spent your stimulus.
You use to prepare your department budget and you didn’t know? Now we know that it was the Skelton guy running DMV. You stayed in the Ministry watching a bunch of rejects mash up the Ministry and the departments and now here airing piddle. You are a disappointment.
Well we don know if any money given to water and sewerage goes to a fancy truck
The BVI government has the same income per head of population as Singapore. The problem is not a lack of money. It is a problem of corruption and incompetence on a vast scale
All this guy does is blame others for his failures so he can always look good at the expense of others. Everything under his responsibility is a failure.
How many BILLIONS of Dollars have come through the BVI in the last 30 years? Look at the state of the infrastructure. Why is that? Every Government should allocate 15% of annual income to infrastructure for a 5 year period. The money should be spent properly. That should be sufficient to bring the infrastructure up to the necessary standards.
On the campaign trail, this same guy said that the Government money is in the people’s pockets.
How about the sidewalk to nowhere next to Queen Elizabeth Park ? Took months and months…..for what ?
It just comes to an end and goes nowhere.
for all the thousands of government employees seem to be where all the revenue goes in the BVI. Not much left for infrastructure!
This guy knows how to play games to win the hearts of a good bit of people but the more the microscope gets on him the more it is clear he is incompetent and survives by throwing everyone under the bus so he can always look good. Some of the areas under him do not need money to allow for improvement, just good strong leadership which he does not have.
And it’s still not finished, and its been in works since last year. They wait for a cruise ship day, drop sand and cement on the “sidewalk”, park a truck on the old side walk. Then their tourists have to walk in the street or take their lives in their hands to cross to the other sidewalk. They dug up across the road in Pockwood Pond, put down some steel planks for traffic o drive over. I’m waiting for the day two cars speeding to get through first crash into each other. Been like that for months. How long does it have to take for these kinds of projects to come to fruition?
Cut our bloated govt payroll to find $ for infrastructure.
I just watched a nine person team cleaning the gutter on the road across from the hospital. One driver of equipment, two people working with shovels, six people standing around!
You are wasting money! Have the other six doing another project, cut the teams to three and a lot more work gets done. Clean up Public Works, get rid of the deadwood, streamline the working teams, get the job done, and stop whining about a lack of money; make what you have work more efficiently!!
What happened to the billions of Government revenue paid in since the 1980s?
Why is the BVI a third world dustbin, given all that revenue?
AND THE OTHER PRETENDERS HELPED TO EMPTY THE SAME KITTY ? AND HE HERE ACTING LIKE IT WAS SUPPOSED TO REFILLL ITSELF , IS THIS ANOTHER EPISODE OF ” WHATS NEXT ” ? •¿• ?
Elected complainers. That’s all we have. We do not have thinkers
That what I desire from these females…..EMPTY KITTY.