Premier defends $3.5M overseas travel bill
Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley was again pressed into action to defend his government’s overseas travel expenses.
Dr Wheatley confirmed in the House of Assembly (HOA) yesterday that roughly $3.48 million was spent on travel by his government from 2019 until 2023 — with $1.5 million coming from travel expenses in 2023 alone.
A breakdown presented by Premier Wheatley showed that $885,183 was spent in 2019; $184,719 in 2020; $144,014 in 2021; and $760,410 in 2022.
“How [do] you double from 2022 to 2023, almost, and how do you reconcile $2.8 million in this year’s budget versus the $3 million that you spent over the last five years?” Sixth District Representative Myron Walwyn asked. “What accounts for all that travel? Where are you going?”
The Premier was also pressed about perceived inconsistencies in projected travel costs of $2.8 million for 2024 versus the roughly $3.4 million spent over the last five years.
Premier Wheatley contended that the extensive travel undertaken by his government was nothing out of the ordinary and drew comparisons with travel under a previous government.
He argued that Walwyn may not want to hear the inconvenient narrative that a similar travel period with the former ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) in which Walwyn served showed that significantly more was spent on overseas travel.
Walwyn said this ‘irrelevant’ information was not requested and pressed the Premier to stick to the questions he was asked.
“When you ask a question, the member has to answer that specific question. I didn’t ask for anything else and I’m not asking the questions as a tit-for-tat,” Walwyn argued. “There’s a reason why I’m asking the questions on behalf of the people. So, the people don’t want to hear who spent what. That is irrelevant.”
Premier Wheatley suggested the information was important since the public needed to understand whether the travel was regular or irregular so that they could add context.
According to the Premier, the government has important trips planned for this year, including to Hong Kong, where he said a majority of clients are located that use the structures for the BVI’s financial services sector.
“We don’t have anything to hide,” the Premier said. “The only reason we’re travelling is to do the work for the people.”
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lots of airmiles racking up
Hear we go again with this clown soup primier we have 3.8mil he and is government spend on traving alone and now he’s under fire he wants to play blame games now,…..Mr primier that’s the best of you spending hard working tax payer money to tour the world ,yes man from since you take office you bean tournig the old world ,and forget about the work you have here to do .,I wish this clown primier we have why can’t you just do us a favor and just step down cause you will go down as one of the worst primier ever in the bvi
@comment
He is the worst, youngest foolish,and airhead to do so. It’s rather unfortunate that he was brought into the Virgin Islands Party. The past and present premiers have disgrace the VIP and the Territory
Hon. Walwyn almost drop this man last night during question time. BVI we made a big mistake again. The Premier is not ready for the job. He sounded completely out of his depth when being questioned and his responses were elementary.
There is nothing to hide and we understand that but there is nothing to show for traveling expences to be so much and his incompotent answer is always the same that previous administration goverments have done what he is doing presently. So all the mistskes & errors the previous GVS made he really is slow to not learn from their mistakes so this clown is going right down the drain and will be out of GV by the next election but yet still with a big fat pay check. That greedy bill has to be banned so them so called leaders can endure the harsh reality they put on us the people while in power pretenting and playing politricks with people
THIS IS GETTING BEYOND RIDICULOUS NOW MAN
THEY SAID THEY WOULD DO JUST WHAT YOU SEE THEM DOING.
ONLY THING IS, THEY BOLD FACE AND OPEN WITH IT.
See why we need more people like Me and Myron in the house of assembly now? We are not afraid to bring forward the touchy topics!
THIS PREMIER IS TRAVELLING AND COSTING US MOTE THAN AN ASTRONAUT
There is a rockslide closing off one lane of Ritas Road above Sea Cows bay since October 6, 2023.
We still have derelict vessels from 2017 along our shores.
West End Ferry Terminal is a nightmare and a disgrace.
And you have no problem spending that money on travel and staying out of your office.
Who did we elect?
This boi is a sellout travel the world makes all sort of foolish decisions unknown to us.He doesn’t give us any feedback as to what was accomplished.Only the voters of his district is.to blame.Accidental Premier
What Natalio Wheatley is doing now is nothing compare to what he and others will do if this place was to go independent he is a disgrace to the BVI we should march him out of office if the UK don’t do something.
What kind of a nation are we? Why are we at war over everything. The Premier travelled? yes. Were tickets bought and the hotel booked? yes. Are there vouchers and payment instruments? yes, Was the purpose of each travel indicated on the payment vouchers? yes. Were the payments made through the approved process? the Auditor can establish this. Can Walwyn request the above details? yes… Instead of doing this battering in public, get these documents and identify the trip you consider unnecessary and make your case against it. If you feel that the Premier must travel in economy class, sponsor a bill to that effect and once it becomes a law, everyone will comply. Very soon, we would transfer this aggression into our public life and once it gets into our gene, it becomes generational. Bad blood is never healthy especially when it wears the toga of politics
The way the people can get this information is through questions in the House. There is no other way. What Hon. Walwyn is doing is the way it should be done and how it has always been done.
There is nothing wrong asking questions. Why should elected leaders wait for questioning competition. We need open government. The freedom of information act makes it mandatory for this information to be made public once the release of such information does not pose any security risk to the nation.
Seems like you’re trying to defend the Premier’s willfulness and lack of respect for the house rules and the purpose of the house. Walwyn is doing it the way that it should be done. If the Premier doesn’t like it or has something to hide, then he can step down and STOP embarrassing us sounding so illiterate and elementary!!!!!! Let him do us all a favor and bow out!!!!
I am GLAD for the BVI voting population. This is what you get when you vote based on emotions and bullshit. The last 5 years of madness came out of hatred for ‘others’ and selfishness/greed of our own people. We didn’t want an ‘island man’, never mind the man is as much a BVIslander as anyone else, so parties broke up and voters voted emotions. Now we have a Premier in Federal Prison and another Premier who doesn’t know his elbow from his a** crack. Good luck, voting has consequences.
@ laughing, I glad for them to.
This is who the BVI elected. Remember 6, 6 VIP were voted back in outright from the 13 members in the current house of assembly. This is what the people wanted and voted for.
Half of that money would have been better spend on our educational system and on geriatric care.
That is a lot of money that could have helped the islands infrastructure
Wasn’t that period during Covid when no one was meant to be travelling? So is that the cost of interBVI travel because most borders were closed internationally and otherwise travel was restricted. They should be made to show who travelled, where and for what purpose because it could not have been for government business – no one was meeting face to face during Covid.
The country is falling apart and our premier continues to jet around the world. When we are bankrupt too late shall be the cry. I wish we could have a redo of the last election
Shameful.
I’d love to see a breakdown of each recipe. What restaurants are they going to, what are they choosing off the menu…I can only imagine!
The country is under a curse and the vengeful ignorance continues to make it worse. Soon we will arrive at the point of no return. 2024 the year that could open or close the door.
They promised the VG people road infrastructure in Great Hill, Crown Land Subdivision. What happen?
Every two weeks thus guy is traveling.
3,500,000 just thought it would be helpful to see the actual number written out. How much does one round trip cost? One hotel stay? Can someone really justify spending that much on travel and are you sure all is being spent on just travel?
You all spend millions of dollars to go to countries with proper infrastructure, only to return to the BVI and drive on dilapidated roads. Have you no shame?!
Incredibly ridiculous, shameful, disgraceful, deplorable, dishonorable, despicable,contemptible, discreditable, reprehensible and diabolical. How can any one in this government hold their head up and look the people of the BVI in the eye!
Quick thought for today: Planes Pa**ies and p*$$y. Any one leads to the others.
let him keep it up, he will soon be out of office if he continues like this, the opposition needs to unite and Fraser needs to go home so we can vote out the vip
“Guess What”, the information relative to travel should be found on a website showing governmental expenses,to include,travel.
No one should have to wait, to sit, in front of a tribunal- political or otherwise, to get answers!
It is sad, that this country has come to this.
And these are the people, that want us to trust them, during a perceived time of
needing independence?
I say, NO!
Let’s stick with the Kingdom, meh boy!
It is because of them, information, relevant to our lives, are finally being revealed!
I so can’t wait for next election!
Invest this money into the infrastructure, the roads have got worse and worse. Do you not care about your people. We the people pay for your 1st class flight to England; we the people pay for your outrages lunch (so called) meetings and all you do is disrespect us by defending this outrages bill.
I never see worse, A man that keep cursing about colonialism just can’t wait to get on the plane to go meet them white slave master to celebrate taking their instructions, have his brains harvested by the same white man, and he come back to the BVI and retard it’s growth with bad road and sewage as the whites want to see black people regress, I am at lost with this Wheatley guy.he do a lot of WhatsApp video chat and surely could do Skype conference call as even president Putin did, you did not create the documents the white man them call you to sign which is infantilism, if you do video chat you will be given time to peruse it , you think he can ever call them white leaders to sign any documents, are we children of a lesser god?