Over $100K saved on printing, Premier says

Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley recently noted in the House of Assembly (HOA) that the government wastes a lot of money when printing and pointed out that nearly $100,000 each month was saved by doing direct deposits to the treasury instead of having to print cheques.

The Premier’s contention was supported by Accountant General (AG) within the Treasury Department, Arnold Ainsley, who made a presentation during the Standing Finance Committee (SFC) meetings held between lawmakers and government department heads late last year.

Ainsley told the SFC that the government recently implemented direct payment to vendors’ bank accounts to reduce the use of printing cheques since printing has become expensive and was a big part of his department’s budget.

He further noted that the department is currently working along with the Department of Information Technology to ensure that in 2023, the majority of the vendors are on the system.

“Can you imagine that? $100,000 a month you are able to save just through a decision. And if we make more decisions like that we’ll find more money to invest,” Dr Wheatley said in the HOA.

In the meantime, the government’s Treasury Department has set its main focus on revamping and revising its payment processing procedures after noting that the system was too paper intensive.

Ainsley pointed out that he worked with all 23 countries in the region and stated that the BVI is the only territory still restricted to using paper for the purpose of payment processing.

The AG told the SFC that his department’s goal is to make the change to process payments electronically.

The SFC was further informed that the Treasury Department is working on a payment gateway along with the assistance of the Department of Information Technology so that they can collect money online and was hopeful to have that initiative commence in the first quarter of 2023.