Government petitions UK
Government has issued a petition to the United Kingdom to have five sections of the Protocols for Effective Financial Management either removed or restructured to the BVI’s benefit.
Premier Andrew Fahie made the announcement whiling presenting the petition before the House of Assembly on Thursday.
He said the conditions which are present in the five sections of the current Protocols were constraining government from doing their job and from being able to access the resources needed to attend to the needs of residents.
The petition document, according to the Premier, was sent via letter on May 6 and was addressed to the UK’s Minister responsible for Overseas Territories, Baroness Elizabeth Sugg and Governor Augustus Jaspert.
“Today I am tabling a petition to the UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, by the ministers of government that call for the total suspension or restructure of Sections 20, 25, 26, 27 and 28 of the Protocols for Effective Financial Management signed on the 23rd April 2012,” the Premier stated.
Economic and Fiscal Task Force Findings
Premier Fahie said the petition was drafted after the territory’s Coronavirus Economic & Fiscal Task Force examined the BVI’s financial framework and proposed the recommendations to rid of the aforementioned sections from the Protocols.
He said they reported several findings that highlighted the impact that the prescribed borrowing limits within the Protocols had on the territory’s ability to access funds needed to provide relief to residents during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“With central government’s limited access to liquid cash, the only unallocated sources of funding are the reserves and contingency funds. Any meaningful attempt to implement even the immediate response measures will cause the BVI to run afoul85` of the liquid assets ratio in the protocols and be held in breach of the said protocols,” the report stated.
It further said: “In the absence of substantial grant support from the UK government, the immediate medium term and long term response and economic stimulus programmes, which become necessary as a result of catastrophic events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the repeal of Section 20 and the review of Sections 25, 27 and 28 of the Protocol for Effective Financial Management, which constrain the BVI government’s ability to access and generate funding, is required.”
Hinders government’s ability to draw from Reserve Fund
The Premier stated that the recommendations from the Task Force also suggested that the conditions in the five sections inhibit the BVI government’s ability to draw monies from the Reserve Fund, which would assist in ensuring public services continue as government revenue is reduced.
He further stated that the sections also obstruct government from raising loan funding and expeditiously implementing projects that are critical to the economic stimulation programme.
The Premier said that these conditions were brought to his attention after the BVI government had visited London in September 2019 to hold discussions with the UK government officials on the UK’s offer of Loan Guarantee for hurricane recovery.
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Please, Please, Please leave the protocols in place. Please, Please…..
You not from here. Stay out of our business.
Oh we have a big say as OUR UK taxation’s go towards this place!
that the government had to have their financial hands tied by the Protocols for Effective Financial Management because as a country it was spending irresponsibly like a drunk sailor at a pub.
It’s unfortunate those running the government could not spend responsibly resulting in the U.K. having to tell the country what they could and cannot spend on like an irresponsible wayward child.
This out of control spending that has led to these financial protocols are due to our government mismanaging of our financial affairs. Now, they want their hands untied to start spending again?
I say keep their hands tied for a little bit longer. They have not learn their lesson. They are itching to spend spend spend again. Don’t allow them.
SO, punish VIP for what NDP do? That making no sense.
that financial mismanagement occurred with both parties. We should all know that history.
The penultimate financial mismanagement occurred when the last VIP government was in power, as those protocols were put in place during their tenure.
It did not matter which party was in power. The modus operendi was to spend spend spend with no accountability or idea of how borrowed money was to be paid back.
Notice that since their hands got tied, they have turned to the local security board as their piggy bank. They are addicted to spending beyond their means.
Every time they want money, they look out their office window straight towards the social security building and a light bulb goes off. Money!
If they keep it up, there may not be any social security left to pay out for those who have paid in one day.
spending initiatives, most of them it is believed, have multiple funnels. The history of the past is clear; the current bucnh of the kleptomaniac party is even more money hungry.
The Protocols put in place had nothing to do with NDP; they were put in place because of the haphazard spending of the previous VIP government; the present Premier being Minister of Education then. Follow the facts.
The Protocols for Effective Financial Management signed on the 23rd April 2012,” NDP came in power 7 November 2011. Do the Maths.
Here is where them talking independence. Let them do it, them will have to negotiate the US for their tender. Look at how them spending again and more handouts. I fxxing want to livè some where else!! Ck me for my passport, I done with tola
Don’t let the door hit you on your way out.
Could somebody please read the protocols!!! The truth is being hijacked!!!