Missed COI deadlines: Governor at fault too — Premier Wheatley
Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley has refuted a recent contention by Governor John Rankin that his government has been unduly sluggish in the implementation of agreed governance reforms between the BVI government and the United Kingdom (UK).
During a press conference last week on his latest quarterly report on the framework for implementation of reforms, Governor Rankin said he was encouraged by some of the progress being made by the coalition Government of National Unity (GNU) but expressed disappointment at the slow rate of the implementation of those reforms.
Governor Rankin detailed in his report that just 15 of the 48 COI recommendations had been completed at the end of December 2022.
“I am concerned that the overall pace of reform is slower than expected and it is important that the public do not lose confidence. It is essential that together we step up our efforts to achieve these important and urgent reforms; committing resources accordingly,” Governor Rankin said at the time.
But Premier Wheatley contended in a statement issued yesterday that reform deadlines have been missed for good reasons by all parties involved — both by his coalition government as well as the Governor’s Office.
“I do not want anyone to get the impression that it is only the elected government that requires extensions,” Dr Wheatley expressed. “The Governor does as well.”
He further argued that it was too easy to get the impression from the governor’s press conference last week that missing deadlines primarily refers to the elected arm of government.
“I want to be perfectly clear. I do believe that reform must be delivered in a timely fashion and that we must proceed swiftly. However, this cannot be at the expense of non-consultation with the public,” Premier Wheatley said.
In the meantime, the Premier shared that there have been serious capacity constraints within the public service which have led to a slowing down of some reform efforts.
He pointed to the Immigration Department in particular where it was noted that more support is needed in that area. “We are exploring how capacity can be boosted and technical expertise secured to help overcome the current capacity constraints faced by the Department,” the premier said.
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Cindy did ask the governor what areas he was behind in and he answered.
Let’s blame someone else for your own failings..
perhaps you should aquire the experts at creating propaganda ,(the holy one
~ csC and wiGo the self proclaimed wannabe estEEmed oNe) to assist you with some of their LYRICS , because you exposed your ignorance ( to put it nicely
Keep pushing ahead Premier to get the job done. We know it ain’t easy.
So he say all of that to still don’t say exactly how the Governor holding up the progress on the reforms “as well” like he is stating.
Always easier to get stuff done if you really want to do it.
None of these ministers want the reforms that will limit their power and opportunity for gain.
So is the attitude of ‘he did it so can I’ part of the curriculum here? It seems to be a very common excuse for failing the people….
What’s the old saying, fool me once…this boy is a fool for sure!
Stop with the excuses.
You are over your head!
The general attitude to doing anything here is to put it off in the hopes that it will go away. With the commitments that the BVI Government gave after the CoI, they will not go away, so the Premier is squirming at trying to explain his failings and those of his government. Government is not under-resourced – the civil service has huge numbers of people doing very little. The issue is one of lack of discipline and personal ethics and failure to follow simple rules.
Sick of this. Blame everyone but yourself. The answer to everything now is colonialism and the Governor.