Gov’t owes over $5M in unpaid vouchers — Premier
Premier and Minister for Finance Andrew Fahie has said the Government of the Virgin Islands owes more than $5 million in unpaid vouchers.
Premier Fahie gave that indication during the Tuesday’s sitting of the House of Assembly. He said: “The dollar amount of all unpaid vouchers at the treasury is $5,423,09.80.”
Of that sum, payments to the National Health Insurance scheme as well as government subvention payments to the H Lavity Stoutt Community College and the Recreational Trust make up the bulk of the funds owed.
“I have to report to this honourable House that the date of the longest unpaid voucher based on what was submitted to the Treasury from the government agencies is February 10, 2020,” Premier Fahie said.
In the meantime, the leader of government business said the Treasury Department is not to be blamed for the debt.
He explained that the Treasury Department can only process vouchers for payments. These vouchers come from the Governor’s Group as well as government ministries and departments.
He further explained that there have been times when the respective departments of government would not process the vouchers promptly. This, he said, resulted in slow processing of these payments.
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The oldest bill is only 16 days old? Sometimes i find that this premier, our leader, have problems with the truth
10 Feb 2020 must be a typo man. Got to be
will those old debts be paid?
The headline is misleading. Government does not owe five million dollars but rather five million dollars of payments for February is now at the Treasury being processed. This is a big difference.
How old are these vouchers? The Premier is the MoF and can issue directives that vouchers should be processed by a certain time. The government has $414M budget so it should be able to meet its obligations promptly. This slow response drives the up the cost for goods and services. Do companies offer discounts to government if it pays early and does it take advantage of the opportunity, ie, 2/10 net 30 (2% if paid in 10 days or pay full account payable in 30 days). Government needs to resist using suppliers to fund government.
This is very poor journalism. The context in which the Premier made the statement is missing from the report. Was the information contained in a statement or report to the House? Was it an answer to a question asked by a member, and if so, what was the question? Sensational headlines just to make click-bait…
Them civil servants who working for WE, who think that dem running dem house on government time need to GO home. If a cheque for them friend or them getting piece of the pie the paper work moves like lightning!!