‘Gov’t marketing a lie to residents’
“The government does not intend to tell the truth at any time and they intend to market a lie” — Andrew Fahie
By Davion Smith, BVI News Journalist
Why did the Premier Dr D Orlando Smith postpone today’s critical Budget Address for a tsunami exercise that only lasted one hour?
That is the question weighing on the minds of a number of residents concerned about the leadership of the National Democratic Party administration.
Unofficial reports are that the postponement of the Budget Address is linked to the controversial Recovery Agency, which is being mandated by the United Kingdom.
On UK’s orders, the Agency will have full control over the millions that will be used to finance government’s proposed recovery plan for the BVI.
And since the UK has offered to be the territory’s guarantor so the BVI can borrow up to £300-million for hurricane recovery, the UK must give its approval on BVI’s Recovery and Development Plan.
The Premier reportedly submitted the document to the UK for approval since November. But, he reportedly neglected to publicise that information to members of the public, who had been participating in consultations on the plan for weeks after the document was submitted to the UK.
Opposition Leader Andrew Fahie raised concern about the issue in the House of Assembly today.
Government marketing a lie
Meanwhile, it is said that even some government members had no idea that the document had been submitted since November. These government members reportedly expressed strong concerns when they discovered what had happened this week.
When BVI News invited Fahie to comment, he said: “The government does not intend to tell the truth at any time and they intend to market a lie … It might sound harsh but it is the truth.
“We are where we are because the government has lived a deceptive life with the taxpayers’ money and it has come home to roost. It is as simple as that,” he added.
Tsunami exercise short
In the meantime, today’s tsunami exercise began minutes after 10 in the morning and ended before 11:30am.
The House of Assembly convened shortly after the exercise and was over in less than half of an hour.
Parliamentarians then left the facility leaving persons to wonder why the Premier did not move ahead with budget proceedings as was planned.
Fahie believes this is merely evidence of a clumsy and troubled administration.
“The government is doing a good job of trying to cover up their tracks with some very serious issues. It will not be long before the public gets a clear grasp of what actually is happening.”
“The excuse used today for not having the budget address is one that I can’t digest no matter how I turn it. It’s obvious that it (the budget) is not ready, or there is confusion about the contents. Never before have I heard a Budget Address being put off and/or rescheduled.”
The Opposition Leader noted that it was government that sanctioned the tsunami exercise to begin with. He added that the two events (the Budget Adress and tsunami exercise) should not have been made to overlap.
“It is clear that the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. But at the same time, there had to be some other major factors,” Fahie reasoned.
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Where have the interest from media of the BVI, its government and people gone?
So what is the lie?
i had this discussion with someone the other day about BVI’s Recovery and Development Plan which led to and argument where i stated that the NDP Government does NOT care about the people of the BVI who put them into position to represent us. Why act as if you were interested in hearing our views about the Recovery of our BVI. When in actuality this documentation had already been sent months before this is ludicris. i want the UK to take FULL CONTROLL over the BVI and its assessts becuse the the government here has no control when it comes to spending our hard earned tax paying money. Cant wait for elections lets see who rally round yall confusion!
why don’t you move to the UK if you want to be under their control.
Why haven’t the ministers shared the Recovery Plan with us? Now we discover it’s been sitting around since November? Why can’t we discuss it?
Sitting around? The thing already gone to the UK.
Why is’nt he in jail for the 7.2 million bvi airways deal.while people with little ganja is being locked up.
No surprises. In my opinion Dr Smith is really not fit to be Premier and Head of Finance as he cannot do either job well enough…as Mr Fahie stated eventually the truth will come out from the “No Diection Parties” NDP deceptions – they are up to things behind the scenes as usual and the smoke screens will continue blah blah ….
Oh god. From one lie to the next. BVI all you strong!!! Any other country rock stone would be flying.
Do you people understand the meaning of DRAFT?
Ask your govt!!!!
You don’t need a guarantor if the lending agency believes you are willing and able to repay these loans.
So here are some questions…. have we defaulted on loans in the pas, are our liabilities more than we can handle. Can we meet the lending requirements on our own, are these lending requirements affair and impartial.
Why is this government not in jail? These corrupt, criminal activities can not happen any where , and the perpretators don’t pay. This NDP Government is getting away with murder. People, my fellow BVIlanders, we must not stay silent any longer. We hold the Power. We put them in, We can take them out. AND WE WILL!!!!! #NDP GONE.
If the recovery plan were a fait accompli, why deliberately waste residents precious time under the false pretense that their inputs would be valuable in constructing the recovery plan? If true that the UK reviewed and approved the plan as early as November 2017, the sham of soliciting inputs from residents was deceitful, shameful, disrespectful……..etc. If top NDP leadership is not honest even with its inner circle, how or why should the masses trust it? The public is losing confidence, trust and respect in government. These qualities are vital for good governance. Government needs to come clean with residents and start rebuilding its integrity..
Why can’t this fine newspaper publish the plan?
Tell us something we dont know about? These ndp what we put in been lying to us from them take office.cant tell the truth at bo time. Gotto catch um under two eyes wide open how sneaky and liard them is.
do we have an alternative ? better mother country take charge for few years set things right and give us back.nothing is wrong with that. there is no question of self respect involved in that. let us not be stubborn with false pride. presently we don’t have quality leadership leadership available to cope with this special situation except hurling abuses @ each other and lowering ourselves
daniel – you are correct, but we have no quality leaders and recent additions that we hoped would change things have really struggled to step up to the mark and fell well short, instead have fallen into the usual apathy and just go with the flow….v sad…Unless the “No Direction Party” improves v quickly the next hurricane season will destroy us…
If the allegation that the NDP government discussed and got approval from the UK government on the recovery plan in Nov 2017, then the charade of soliciting input from residents, NGOs, civil servants………etc is equivalent to a dog chasing a car. Useless. This is disrespecting residents, treating them like ignoramuses. But BVI residents deserve the disrespect.
Largesse and political patronage have infected the population at an epidemic level. It is so much so that residents are blinded to poor and unhealthy governance. Let’s continue with the self interest and pretend all is well. The day of reckoning is coming soon. Like the Isralites leaving Egypt so too will expats trolong from the territory when it crash and burn. Barry say you will hear. Then even the trushies will fly away. Bird sanctuary you say. No.
Regentrification is on the way. Remember after some devastating hurricanes, collapse of sugar prices, revolt of slaves……etc in the 1830s, the planter class/ colonialists bolted, leaving and classifying the territory as a poverty stricken and desolate place that was good only as a bird sanctuary. Guess who was left to fend for themselves? They fended and pass baton so that the territory had one of the highest standard of living or and quality of life in the region. But Boomers and some millennials are taking the territory backwards due to greed, selfishness, elitism …….etc.
Let’s lead like eagles, not careen off the cliff like buffaloes.