Jaspert can’t recall pressuring Premier to sign UK loan guarantee
Former Governor, Augustus Jaspert, said he has no recollection of ‘intensely’ pressuring Premier Andrew Fahie into signing a loan agreement that was offered by the UK government for hurricane recovery.
In a position statement from government ministers to the Commission of Inquiry (COI), it was said that “from the very first day of its mandate, the newly elected government came under heavy pressure from former governor Jaspert to agree and sign up to the terms of the loan guarantee agreement”.
The statement further claimed Jaspert went as far as to place the papers for signature before the Premier immediately upon swearing him in.
But the government said it resisted doing so on the grounds that it was unwilling to put itself in the position of sacrificing political and democratic control. The Fahie administration said these were effectively the conditions of the UK’s offer to pay off up to £300 million of the BVI’s debt in the event the territory defaults on its obligation.
The ministers added that the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) — under which the governor is assigned — even informed the government that if it rejects the loan guarantee, the FCDO “will not look favourably under the Protocols for Effective Financial Management on any alternative borrowing”.
Loan Guarantee was designed to be a BVI led recovery
But during his appearance before the COI recently, Jaspert refuted the assertions and said: “I don’t recall pressurising the Premier to sign as he was sworn in. That’s not something that I actually recall from my recollection of events.”
“[However], I do recall being very clear throughout my concern about the pace of recovery and that this was an offer — an offer given in good faith to the territory — to help the government should it wish to bring in more money at a cheaper rate than they would otherwise be able to likely get, which in clear principle is built in about transparency, accountability in terms of how that money is spent in the interests of the people of the Virgin Islands,” the former governor added.
He further denied the government’s charges about the UK’s attempts at control and, instead, insisted that the loan guarantee was designed to be a BVI-led recovery effort.
The government had said some of the UK’s conditions to control the effort was through the Recovery & Development Agency (RDA). The Fahie administration said the RDA was set up in a way that, essentially, arranged for the UK to dictate where recovery funds would go.
Responding to questions from the COI on the matter, Jaspert stated: “Actually, the UK, the position that the loan guarantee was taken forward on, was to support the territory itself to design its own recovery, to design its own approach to recovery through an act that the House of Assembly, the BVI’s House of Assembly voted on and took part in the Recovery & Development Act. And also to design their own plan for recovery,” Jaspert said.
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Ohh you suffering from alzheimer’s now Gus?
Man good thing you left BVI because you wouldn’t remember that you were here.
GTFOH!
same thing i say… easiest way to deny something that you did is to say i don’t recall. If he did not do it he would have said straight up no i did not dot that
He Tell the COI he cant recall giving criminals papers effing L**r man
If Gus has no recollection (known as the Prince Andrew defence), and does not say that he did not pressurise the Premier – then the Commissioner will have to accept what the Premier says.
That’s Amazing. I can remember it & I can remember us debating it on these same platforms. I have always been against it as I saw it as the trap it was intended to be while many were thirsty for any $$$ regardless of the consequences.
Shut up and go Gus. Let Ranking do his work. And please UK don’t send anymore neocolonials here in our primarily Afrikan/Black territories to try to dominate us, it will never go well. And take the ones here who you like, the everything white is right club, take them and stick them somewhere, I know you don’t want them living around you but since they don’t want to be here with the rest of their own ppl stick them somewhere so we can all be happy.
I wonder who will win the lying competition he or andrew?
Governor doesn’t recall applying such intense abusive pressure. Not that he doesn’t remember the event. He remembers the events and the correct procedures for the event.
You mean the same way the UK didn’t put any pressure in forcing the government to go through with forming the RDA? Dont let people fool you. They signed it with a gun to their head and the same way the UK tried to pressure us to sign the loan agreement as well.
Him being able to recall “intensely pressuring Premier” doesn’t mean that it may not have happened…he just can’t recall it. That’s all his answer could prove…he didn’t recall whether he did. Let’s stop mincing words here.
Who cares. Obviously they should have been under stringent terms. Instead they took our ss $ and piss it in the creek. He should have pushed harder. Ppl that piss $ when things normal like BVI gov last 25 yrs, are even sloppier with their stream of our $, in a crisis. (“Always waste a crisis”)
Former Governor, Augustus Jaspert, said he has no recollection of ‘intensely’ pressuring Premier Andrew Fahie. Europeans and their words. Okay let’s remove ‘intensely’. Now Gus might remember pressuring Fahie hahahaha. Think they’re slick.
I wonder if he remembers how the COI started and who called for it