Gov’t workers told to focus on revenue generation this year
Premier and Minister for Finance Andrew Fahie has charged public officers with the task of focusing on revenue generation for the most of this year.
Premier Fahie was at the time addressing a strategic planning meeting with public officers on Tuesday, a government-commissioned media release said on Wednesday
He said this was the focus for the first three quarters of 2020.
Premier Fahie said the plans in place stand to benefit the people of the Virgin Islands in all areas.
The leader of government business further said his areas of priorities include “green energy; amendments to and creation of legislation; and capacity building in specific economic sectors such as the marine industry, culinary arts, alternative energy and entrepreneurship”.
According to the said media release, “Premier Fahie pledged his support for the establishment of the Halls of Justice and the development of a modern ferry terminal in West End. Other areas of priority include consumer protection, medicinal marijuana, and digitisation of services”.
Governor to focus on good governance
Also addressing public officers, Governor Augustus Jaspert said his office’s mandate this year will be geared towards public service transformation, good governance, security and justice, disaster resiliency, alignment of constitutional departments, human resource capacity building, organisational reviews, and quality service delivery, the release said.
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This man is not a Fancy type leader but a wide and effective leader.
Undoubtedly, government needs revenue to deliver services, high quality services. The Hon Julian Fraser (D-3) in a recent statement asserted that the operations and maintenance budget is increasing but the level of service is declining. Is the Hon Fraser’s observation on point? The current proposed 2020 budget is $414M and for last 2-3 years the average budget was $300M. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is approx a $1B. The budget and GDP are much higher than some larger regional countries. Nonetheless, what does the VI have to show for it?
Can the VI brag about its road network, medical system, educational system( high school, primary school), water, sewage, electricity, environment, drainage, social services, public safety—-police and fire, central library…….etc? The Premier needs to focus on delivering a high level of quality services and increasing productivity. Rarely do we hear about productivity. Well, low productivity cost big bucks; it drives up the cost of delivering services. If government increases productivity to say 68-72%, it will improve and deliver more services and can lower budget. The civil service needs to be retrained on service delivery. It is frustrating to call a department for a routine service request and it is either that the person does not know the answer to simple requests or you get pass around from office to office or sometimes no one answers transferred calls. Can go on…..
” The Premier needs to focus on delivering a high level of quality services and increasing productivity. Rarely do we hear about productivity. Well, low productivity cost big bucks; it drives up the cost of delivering services.” Indeed, low productivity cost big bucks. This is driven home by a simple example on something that each resident used either directly or indirectly each day—–ROADS.
Let’s say that $5M is earmarked for a 5 lane mile road project and let’s also assume that the estimated cost was strong and during the project construction there were no latent defects or unforeseen condition/issues encountered yet the $5M was expended but only 3.5 miles of road completed. Assuming the cost for constructing a lane mile of road is $1M, government/taxpayers will have to take $1.5M from another project to complete the unfinished 1.5 lane miles, increasing the total project cost to $6.5M. The increased cost comes at an opportunity cost, ie., some other project may be cancelled or delayed. There are big bucks(cost savings) in low productivity, inefficiencies……..etc.
Government has a large bucket list and many irons in the fire; nonetheless, increasing productivity can reduce operational cost and increase the level and quality of service delivery. And it is effective governing. Thus, government should commission a productivity study. Additionally, government needs to nurture a culture of doing more with fewer/less resources. This is the new normal.
Boi, during school days, you were a quiet and laconic guy. Scud school a lot and hang out in the pond bush (lol) but top of the class. But now you got diarrhea of the mouth(lol) but talking good. Your input will fall on deaf ears and will be like a dog chasing a car and caught up it and what happens? Nada. Appreciate your opinions.
The darm “OLD” laws need to be made up to modern day living. We keep talking about our 2 pillars. At any day we can be on 1. Most tourist want to experience the Islands with the local experience. Living and dwelling among them(RB&B). Look at our villages,rubbish,domestic farming, body works, unregulated bars(no enforcement of noise act).St.lucia is bow moving to making every village tourist friendly. Every one will now experience the profits of the tourist dollar. BVI, we are way back there to catch up!!
Imagine that…. public officers collecting revenue when that is their duty of the job… IR, SS, NHI, CUSTOMS, various license departments ect keep giving friends and families breaks not to pay their way.
The Premier is correct, if public officers were doing things as should be for Government the revenue collected would be astronomical!
Good but with out abc
Do something about the on going rip off. A national disgrace
Look at the company we keep
MOST EXPENSIVE COUNTRIES FOR MONTHLY BROADBAND PACKAGES
Rank Country Packages measured Average monthly cost
197 Mozambique 13 £132.12
198 Virgin Islands (British) 4 £137.29
199 Tanzania 20 £144.32
200 Turkmenistan 18 £172.33
201 Equatorial Guinea 5 £198.94
202 Burundi 7 £217.62
203 Turks and Caicos Islands 9 £237.83
204 Mauritania 4 £532.78
205 Yemen 21 £1,891.94
206 Eritrea 20 £2,045.01
Source: Cable
Good move Premier
Head Line: “Government workers told to focus on revenue generation this year.” This is an interesting statement. Was the revenue intent in artfully communicated by the Premier. The HOA set and approve the sources of revenue; civil servants collect revenue consistent with policies established by HOA. HOA set policy and government/executive carry them out. Civil servants carry out/administer policies and don’t go out looking for sources from which to collect revenue. Did the Premier mean that civil servants must get more aggressive, efficient and effective in collecting revenue from established sources, ie, custom duties, house and tax, employment tax, NHI, social security…….etc.
Premier all I want u and ur team to do is put in place a tax return policy people here working hard paying tax in all angles at least u can do a tax return income sure many would benefit from it