Premier to critics: There’s no endless pot of money!
Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley has warned critics that they will never get everything they want from the budget and insisted that there is no infinite reservoir of funds for the territory to tap into when executing projects.
“This year’s budget was among the biggest in history, capital and recurrent [expenditure] together [was] probably upwards of $450 million, which is way more than budgets in the past. But despite that, you’ll still have persons saying, well, there’s a lot that I haven’t gotten,” the Premier said recently.
He urged persons to recognise that there are limitations regarding the amount of revenues that the BVI earns as a territory.
“There’s no endless pot of money. So we have to prioritise — which we haven’t been good at in the past, I have to say — we have to prioritize and you have to recognize you can’t accomplish everything in one year, you spread it out over the course of a number of years,” he added.
Premier Wheatley argued that this is the reason that planning needs to be done and the reason behind the government’s National Sustainable Development Plan, which was passed in the House of Assembly earlier this year.
In his budget speech last month, the Premier said the government has to plan and be deliberate in its strategy if it wants to achieve progress and sustainable development.
Premier Wheatley said his government will soon appoint a Director of Policy, who he said will be responsible for helping to implement the National Sustainable Development Plan and to map it to specific budgets.
He said the political directorate will then be held responsible for discussions on what will be dealt with in each successive year.
“Departments will never be completely satisfied. Certainly, the Opposition won’t be satisfied. That’s not their job to be satisfied,” the Premier commented. “But certainly we have to take a responsible approach to how we budget, how we allocate resources, and then once we’ve passed the budget, we also have to make sure that the machine is well oiled and we’re able to execute based on what it is we have allocated money to do.”
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All we heard is that WE ARE NOT BROKE. Do something or give Lorna Premiership. Looks like a march has to happen again as in your grandpa’s time. Step down. Mcw and MHW you are suppose to be honourable men we need a vote of no confidence to get out of the deep hole.
Checck the ledgers in Asia, Guyana and other.There thr money could be found?
Maybe rely more of money outside of tourism. Such as exports out of the Islands to make more money like fishing.
Hopefully Dr. Hon Premier Natalio Wheatley, D-7 Rep and MoF, as VI government leader is talking to all the people both critics and supporters about their not being an endless pot of money. There is not, for there are more needs than money. So who, what, etc., gets what dollars?
There is no scientific way to allocate resources, especially scarce resources, via the budget.All budgets are political documents, policy decisions, value judgements, a game, etc..Further, budgets more often than not inspire political battles. The budget is one of two basic resources to get the job done; Human Capital, the other. In managing budgets, managers should understand two basic things, ie, a) they will never have all the resources in any fiscal year to do everyting which needs to be done, and b) they must employ allocated resources to deliver the most/ best services to the most people. This will require maximizing budget efficiency. Managerial success should be measured by being able to deliver positive outcomes from allocated budget limits.
Stop all the whining and bellyaching about not having enough money. Here is a news flash,, you never will. The trick is : Being able to cut budget, operating within budget allocations ,without cutting services.. The reality is the VI fiscal O&M budget is approximately $400M. Citizens are increasingly demanding more services but showing a disdain about paying any additional taxes or fees for the increased services. Moreover, on the other hand, citizens expect government to provide and maximize budget efficiency with available taxes and fees. If citizens have a high level of confidence in government maximizing and optimizing resources they would may be more receptive to paying additional taxes and fees. What are the sources of government revenue???? Taxes, fees, etc. Let get tings done with the available trounces.. I leave you with this: “ You can do anything you want to , but you can’t do everything.”
To GateKeeper, a practical and well- reasoned blog. The key things that I got is 1) managers must maximize budget efficiency, 2) achieved and be rated for providing positive outcome with allocated resources, c) you can do anything you want to do, but you cannot do everything, d) there will never be enough money to do everything which needs to be done, etc. At the of VI coat of arms on the scroll is the Latin word’ Vigilate’ is, be watchful . Let us be vigilate with our limited budgetary resources.
Just ranting about their not being an endless pot of money is just an empty rant. It does nothing to informed us about the territory’s financial position situation. The Premier must realized he is going to have critics and has to roll with the punches, letting us seeing him work b. .. y.
Here is the real deal. Too many of our Ministers of Finance don’t know what they don’t but show know about finance and budget, faking it to make it. They are little like parrots repeating verbatim whatever finance staff put before them. This is akin to my memorizing a math formula and when the professor change the question format, I was lost. Our system of government is severely flawed as bellowed by other bloggers, promoting the Peter Principle, ie, elevating people from level of competence to a level of incompetence. This is a general statement and not identifying anyone specific. Nevertheless, we must put people in charge of things they know at least the minimum/basic about. The system needs revamping.
It’s not what the Territory earns, it’s what happens to the money after the Government gets it. The CoI had a lot to say about that.
What have we got for the billions of Government revenue paid in since the 1980s? Terrible infrastructure and terrible education and training for the kids. It’s why we have so many foreign workers.
we would have more if aya would stop traveling so much and stop having parties for every little thing
“There’s no endless pot of money” says the man who never saw a foreign trip on a first class ticket that he didn’t like (and of course, it always included a “delegation” of syncophants and ass-kissers). What an imbecile, and a hypocrite.
The BVI government has about the same income per head of population as the UK or Singapore.
However those 2 countries do not spend 15% of gdp on a bloated and inefficient civil service to provide ( non ) jobs for their relatives and cronies.
Stop the frig! You done say that the Government ain’t broke and bragging about how much money in the kitty, so work baby, work!!!!
Oh but there is endless pot
EXCEPT The premier’s travel budget
It is our money! Why are you so obsessed with it and us? Why don’t you focus that/your energy on your own countrys money?