Premier to request $138M to continue operations till 2019 budget passes
Premier Dr D Orlando Smith in the House of Assemble.
Premier and Minister of Finance Dr D Orlando Smith will be seeking permission from the House of Assembly to dip into the Consolidated Fund and withdraw $138.9 million so government can continue to operate after the start of the new financial year.
He will be seeking permission to use those monies for up to four months or until the 2019 budget (the Appropriation Act 2019) is passed — whichever comes first.
According to the order paper for Thursday’s (December 13) sitting of the House of Assembly, $116,660,900 of the $138.9 million is designated for the recurrent budget, which accounts for governments monthly/recurring revenues and expenses.
Another $2,550,000 will be used to fund capital acquisitions (government purchases) while $6,728,700 will be earmarked for capital projects (initiatives to develop, improve, and/or maintain government assets).
The remaining $13 million will be designated for loan resources.
In the meantime, today’s fourth sitting of the Fourth Session or the Third House of Assembly will also see a key piece of legislation being introduced — the Economic Substance (Companies and Limited Partnerships) Act, 2018. This legislation consists of a number of policies intended to keep the BVI off the European Union’s dreaded blacklist of non-compliant tax haven jurisdictions.
Premier Smith hopes the legislation will be approved and becomes law by December 31, 2018 – the deadline set by the European Union.
READ: Fahie wary, says new bill on economic substance ‘very cagey’
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Is all this money for the gravy train?
How much of that money is going to them? We have a right to know what their authorized salaries are don’t we?
Wait – the Minister who acknowledged that he gave $7.2 milll to a group of well documented con men because he didn’t do any due diligence now wants to gain control of over $100milll before he leaves office.
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO
Not until he turns in all of the audits and he has been cleared of any wrong doing. In the meantime the Governor should appoint a manager or receiver.
Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me. Fool me three time shame on the Governor for not helping.
PLEASE MR GOVERNOR DON’T ALLOW THESE GUYS AN OPEN CHECK
I couldn’t have said it any better!! Just sad all around in this little place. Sometimes I wish they get their way and the Governor takes over, making way for UK exemption from permits, UK companies taking over construction, trucking and other businesses here in the BVI. Then they will scream where is the next Noel Lloyd.
Had you not given the ghost airline our 7M, you would only be requesting 131M now.
More monies ,yet no progress .
They actually have that much in the consolidated fund to pilfer?
How in thy kingdom come, we brokes as hell and the deputy in Poland talking climate change. We need to start wit the two dump sites first and emission smoke. We cannot control our garbage and still promoting tourism. The more tourist the more garbage and want to charge them environment fee. We going down hill….!
This is impressive. All this money in the consolidated funds. Thumbs up for the premier and his party. They might do some errors, yes we all make mistakes but man after 1 year still paying salaries and our island is looking lovely again.
Doc as a young person I am proud of you.
Thumbs up to the bvi many of our Caribbean countries cannot pay salaries and have no reserves.
May God continue to bless our country
Please stop the negative and let us put our hands together to make this place a beautiful and peaceful place to live.
Well they had no choice….due to UK requirements to save a certain portion of revenue to the Consolidated Fund…
Actually they have already misspent all our money that could have made our home a better place. My school is broken. My road is broken. My power is broken. My internet is slow and expensive.
Things are really bad and they made it so. We even caught them with their hands in our cookie jar.
I don’t want to give up hope, but it seems like no one really care anymore?
If he don’t give away 7.2 we would have a roof on our school. Ask he where all our other money went. Not good exampel for us.
Smith gots a be a real MS . Allyo done thief our eyes our heads, now you want to go with balls and all… NO NO NO NOPE NOPE AND NOOOOOOOOO
No wonder young people around here a losing their grip on reality and asking stupid questions such as “is 8K a lot of money”. They keep hearing these big figures being called, and do not have a single notion about how to make money the honest way. They also have no clue whatsoever on how to manage money, hence they are always broke and on the “hustle”. I feel our government has also lost touch with reality where managing money is concerned. If we continue this way England might take back control of our finances
$8K is NOT a lot of money… carry on!
It appears that the monies that are given to goverment from private entities due to the hurricane, we had. Is part of the funds. As you can see he has not mentioned how much is in the consolidated fund.
For 30 years 90% of all income has been used for salaries in the BVI. If you calculate the annual budget of $200M per year this means that $5.4BN dollars disappeared..not into schools, roads or healthcare but into people pockets. Well done BVI!
That is correct but it’s Government’s fault how? People want to suck the Treasury dry and act surprised when there’s nothing left for infrastructural development? You cannot force $10.00 out of $1.00. If we only have $2.00 left after paying salaries, pensions etc and our infrastructural works cost $20.00 then we will always have $2.00 infrastructure, which is currently the case. Now raise your hands civil servants who are willing to take a pay cut to save the Territory? That’s what I thought, pure lip service. NEWSFLASH: No matter which party you elect, as long as we are paying so much of our revenue in salaries we will NEVER get infrastructure fixed.
let the Minister’s , PS and Heads of Department and all the expensive consultants raise their hands and take the pay cuts. Most civil servants living hand to mouth !
30% of the civil service are doing 90% of the work, those people work very hard and are dedicated professionals. The other 70% sit around playing on their phones knowing that they born here and have a job for life. Processes are antiquated (documents completed by hand, in triplicate; middle management not empowered to be decision-makers because everyone is so power hungry; meaningless bureaucratic hoops to jump through which serve no good purpose). Eventually the model must change because it will bankrupt the country. It is unsustainable having such a big proportion of the population employed by the government but no politician will ever tackle that because laying off voters doesn’t get you elected. BVI is a large village in terms of population and no village in the world has thousands of people employed in its governance (particularly where the government has such a limited role i.e. no security, international relations). Some hard truths are needed but no-one wants to hear them
Well said!
But, the current education system is so third world, so we have to settle for life long government jobs which don’t pay that much but then again I don’t have to do anything and I will get paid for life. And I get to watch a lot of movies at work.
We need better schools.
Wait until the civil servants are mandated to make contributions to their pension! Watch how fast many retire or leave the service.