Legislator calls for debate on COI reforms
Fourth District Representative Mark Vanterpool has expressed a strong desire to debate the Commission of Inquiry (COI) and the reforms that are being implemented as a result of its outcome.
The BVI government recently signed a framework agreement with the United Kingdom over a timeline for the implementation of recommendations emanating from the COI report.
But Vanterpool said major changes were being made in the territory as a result of the COI recommendations, yet the document had not come to the House Assembly for debate and he questioned whether this was transparency or democracy at work.
“Because of the opinion of some, we must go and execute and carry out and implement these COI recommendations without a debate in the House. Is that right? Is that transparency? Is that good governance? The elected, the highest institution in the territory hasn’t had a chance to debate the bill and we are full-speed implementing. I have a concern about that. We need to slow this thing down,” Vanterpool said.
“All of a sudden, because a Commission has called all of us hooligans, we are accepting that we are all hooligans. Who are you speaking to? Me, a hooligan? Let’s stop and think about this. Let’s stop and think about it,” Vanterpool urged.
Vanterpool said a debate over the COI did not mean anything was wrong with the inquiry itself, since it was an important commission.
“We have a Commission of Inquiry that says that we can’t run our own country and we let it go by like that?“ Vanterpool asked.
He pointed to the looming Order in Council from the UK and insisted that the BVI was under direct British rule, regardless of what anyone else said.
“If the Governor of the country isn’t satisfied with anything that the Cabinet does or the House does, he has a right to institute the rule right away. Without even asking anybody,” Vanterpool asserted.
The legislator said as far as he’s concerned this meant that the governor was in charge and “he run things”.
Vanterpool said the public needed to be made aware of this.
“If the public likes it, fine. But I ain’t gonna stand and take it like that,” Vanterpool said.
Copyright 2024 BVI News, Media Expressions Limited. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed.
It needs to be debated and properly examined by an objective and independent individual. It cannot be that a one man commission could come for some months and make those conclusions without presenting evidence. All they did was use the auditor’s reports and try to prove what they wrote as true. When you read the report you could see the dishonesty in it. The UK has one cook up of a plan for their own benefit.
They are all circling the wagons as they are nervous as hell. Investigations are closing in and the crooked are grasping at straws. Go ahead and start your s**t Mark. You are one of the ones under the microscope. I would love to see an attempt at stopping the agreement. UK takeover would be much quicker than waiting for Slow Andy to default.
Should that also be done to all decisions made by Judges in court? This was a long process in which evidence was collected and examined. We watched as they probed the deep levels of corruption and mis-governance that has plagued the BVI for generations and most of the time we could not believe that what we were watching was reality…. The brazen way that our elected and unelected officials brushed off their misuse of funds and BLATANT corruption as ‘culture’ or ‘how we do things here’ was appalling! The only people with opinions like yours are those without a conscience who benefit from the innate corruption and want to continue to do so.
Yes, but the Attorney General and the Government made a number of submissions and set out their position statements and Ministers replied to the criticisms made against them – in every case the Commissioner rejected them without any kind of analysis because he did not want to hear them. He had his own opinion from the beginning and he stuck to it. As a result the COI was the most one sided inquiry in the history of the Overseas Territories. There needs to be a wider debate about the COI’s conclusions and recommendations. Anything else is undemocratic.
Gov. Rankin, pull the trigger NOW as this cabinet is going to frustrate the process of the corruption cleanup led by Action Man Vanterpool and the other corrupt cronies. You are threatening their co**upt schemes and they won’t cooperate to get the BVI cleaned up..
The five stages of grief are: Denial, Anger,Bargaining,Depression,
And Acceptance.
Let’s please move beyond denial towards acceptance. We can no longer deny the COI or try to bargain our way out of the crimes that were committed.
Once we accept it, we can move forward.
Mr you know why you don’t want it simple to understand because you are one of the co**upt ones.
STFU. The reason the COI is there is you can’t be trusted to run the country. This wouldn’t be happening if you lot had any integrity or some kind of moral compass. The country is in this mess because of people like you.
The public is aware of it. Why do you think there have been all these press conferences and public meetings? For fun? This is happening. If you object to any part of the reforms, EXPLAIN WHICH ONES AND WHY. You haven’t done that, so as far as the public is concerned, the only reason you object is because you have something to hide. It’s time for you, C*rvin, C*indy, and the rest to pipe down and take several seats. You are starting to look very, very guilty.
debating is fine but what’s the point if its going to just boil down to its either you do it or they suspend the constitution and do it anyway.
We watched the CoI live and it is still available on You Tube. The dishonesty and poor practices are there for all to see. The report just highlights these.
Also the arrogance and blocking by certain parties. The action points are needed, what is there to argue with?
All of you are hooligans. Who are you speaking to? Me, a hooligan? YES. We would not have come to this if all of you weren’t hooligans; you all are giving the UK more reason to step in good job.
The legislator said as far as he’s concerned this meant that the governor was in charge and “he run things”.
Vanterpool said the public needed to be made aware of this, the public is aw2are of it and love it.
all you elite boys and investment club, you buy pussers and it look like sht now, vg yacht harbor a joke. proof is that only reason yall rich like 3rd wrold kingpins is that system set up for your cheatin.aside from CLT, most local biz’s are not competitive, disservice to the people, and exist in a perverted economy, set up to reward the bvi aristocracy as only you get access to buy things and have protected industry. slow motion car crash.
This man is showing his true colors day after day and they are not pretty! There is an agreement, why is he doing this? A chance for us fix our own problems and this man still want to run is mouth.
Makes me wonder what he is hiding, and I have no basis for saying that other than he should be helping but it seems like is getting in the way.
Through this hole thing, listen to all who making the most noise. A.F was making a whole heapa noise and calling God God, see where he is. M.V, CSC and all of them who have sucked the milk out of the kitty dry have all been the beneficiaries of the public purse, now they cry wolf. All the Caricom leaders who standing up for independence of BVI, remember it has yet to be revealed who those are under FBI watch with A.F. Best to just shut up and tek a seet
If the views above are the views of BVIslanders and not UK operatives then we are all in trouble. Colonialism is alive and well in the minds of BVI people. How could you believe that the descendants of people who enslaved our ancestors could care more about us and our country than the very people who belong to this country and live, work here and have their families here? It must take some serious kind of disturbance upstairs to allow yourself to believe that. We are screwed.
You’d rather be screwed by your own rather than accept help!
Playing the ‘colonialism’ or ‘racism’ card again are we…. that is the all you have. The past (which truly should not be discounted) is the past… we can be wary of the future but we cannot look at what is happening now and say that we know the motives of the modern people because of the past. It doesn’t work that way. The world (and EVERYONE in it) has evolved. It seems that all the corruption here in the BVI and those driving it have to cling on to is to try and create a divide and uproar by dragging people back 200 years and saying the white man is at it again. STOP AND LOOK. For your lifetime, who has stolen from you for their personal gain? You want to seek reparations from the past? I believe that is fair and owed. But what we should not do is blindly follow those who are continuing to blame the current situation on colonialism and race…. its about greed… and its coming from BVIslanders.
You say people who don’t see this are disturbed in the mind but truly, it takes some effort to ignore the issues being raised and pretend this is all happening out of the blue.
These islands have been run by us for decades. We are in the wealthiest bracket of Caribbean territories but you would never guess it. Money has been poured into politicians’ and their friends/relatives bank accounts, businesses and offshore companies.
I’m referencing government and civil service, without even bringing in the 1st pillar of our economy, criminal cartel cash.
And on top of that, those same “people who belong to this country and live, work here and have their families here” are defined protectively to make sure many many people who fall under that definition 100%, have 0% say in the affairs of the place they live and, in many cases were born.
The COI came in and offered hope for an end to the dysfunction we all lived in. Crying “colonialism” and portraying it only through that prism is a wilful choice to ignore the actual issues, and looks like an effort by the in-crowd to keep a hold of the cookie jar at the expense of everyone else.
The UK has held these islands since the 1600s. Pretending their involvement here is new and surprising is either false pretence or self delusion. They have always been in the equation. Deal with that. If we’re smart, we’ll make it work to the advantage of all the people that call the BVI home, not just the few old time families.
So we must just accept the report with all its flaws calling us corrupt because a few Caucasians say so? It should not be brought under any scrutiny whatsoever but the black leaders should be held up and stripped in front of the world. We are a sick people.
Good to see you are making it a racist discussion, unfortunately it’s not. It’s about corrupt people. Color does not play a role although you desperately want it to be..only person whos sick is you – sick in the head
It is a racist discussion in the desguise of corruption. Glad you all find a new heading but we see through it. Well planed and executed. We are so corrupt in the BVI that over 100 nationalities their uncorrupt home land to come here and live here. The problem we have now is some want to commit genocide.
It’s the white , yellow man , slightly brown man not entirely black man and over 100 other nationalities who have put their hands in the cookie jar over the last 30 years..dream on my ignorant friend and stay in your racist little bubble…
Keep playing that race card and see how far it gets you. We sicka you.
No, we prove ourselves to be corrupt and then we blame it on white people, slavery and colonialism. I use to get an attitude when I do wrong and my father take out he belt to cut my a**e too. We have a problem with accountability. Keep effing up and we happy, cut the navel string and we blame the white man
REALLY AIN’T GOT NOTHING ELSE TO SING ABOUT EXCEPT (RACISM BAND COLONIALISM ) THATS THEIR ONLY SONG THEY GOT LEAVE ,AND AS I SAID BEFORE ,MR STOUTT , WAS A VERY EDUCATED GENTLEMAN , YET HE NEVER SUNG THAT SONG , BUT THESE WANNABE ARISTOCRATS THINK THEY GOT MORE BRAINS THAT ANYBODY ELSE ON EARTH , ARE TRYING EVERYTHING TO TRY AND FOOL PEOPLE ( BUT THEY ARE ONLY OUTSMARTING THEMSELVES AND MAKING THEMSELVES LOOK STUPID ?
What I have observed with the comments and what is going on in the BVI, is that some of these white people are p**sed that black people own anything. Coming on with this jive talk about sharing the wealth to everyone who call BVI home. Where in this world the white man share the wealth to every body in a society? check those places where the white man control and see the amount of people that is homeless and starving. Who you all trying to feed this crap to? See how much people running from where you all controling and come to the BVI to survive and live a better life. A lot of the money you all complaining that is stolen pass through to other countries to help out families back there. BVI people better get wise because the aim hete is to leave us with nothing. You all do not see when a white man buy property they fence up and no tresspass sign go up. We never use to do that and no body was tresspassing. We are a people who show love and share what we have. They want to get their hands on everything and put their names on it, then we won’t even be able to look at it. Let our own thief it as they say. It will still be ours.
I see Black people fence up their land too. I see Islander fence up his land and a chicken went through it and he went and buy another set of wire so not even a chicken and go through it. I see many black people who owns land and event though there are legal easment to provide access to their land they are denied this legal right by their black brothers and sisters.
I totally agreed that the act should not apply to the present legislators because it will be enacted after they were seated in the legislature. However’ this act is essential for the future. All legislators and Permanent secretaries and heads of department MUST declare their assets. This is one way to reduced corruption and must be enacted.
Tall fences make better neighbors..Y’all want to be reaping what you not able to sow.Y’all too craven..belly full..eyes still red.Dogs better than gun.
That is the problem your belly is fuller than you expected but you still jealous me for what my Grandfather gave me. You think it is too much for me. We see who is craven now.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/mexicos-capture-drug-kingpin-could-041355206.html
Looks like the Port MD and Head coach were working with top dogs. This looks like someone from the same cartel Mdntioned in their affidavits.
Some of the people who making the most noise about legislators stealing and no transparency are people who came here walking selling out of suitcase and set up shops, selling us counterfeit goods and have a no cash return policy. Thank God for Amazon.