Premier touts relaxation of borrowing protocols
Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley has described the recent relaxation of financial management protocols between the Virgin Islands and the United Kingdom as one of the territory’s most significant fiscal achievements in recent years, saying the move will create additional room for public investment and development.
Delivering his 2026 State of the Territory Address recently, Dr Wheatley said the government had successfully negotiated changes to the Protocols for Effective Financial Management, a framework introduced by the UK that governs aspects of the territory’s fiscal operations.
“Government also successfully negotiated the relaxation of the protocols for effective financial management with the United Kingdom, lowering the liquid assets ratio from 25% to 20% for 2026 through 2028,” Dr Wheatley stated.
The liquid assets ratio requires the government to maintain a specified level of cash reserves relative to expenditure. According to Dr Wheatley, the revised arrangement will reduce the amount of money that must be held in reserve and make additional funds available for national priorities.
“In simple terms, this means government is now required to hold less money in reserve, creating tens of millions of dollars of additional fiscal space to invest in roads, health care, education, public safety, infrastructure, law enforcement and national development,” Premier Wheatley said.
He added: “This represents one of the most important fiscal achievements in recent years and gives government greater flexibility to build the Virgin Islands of tomorrow.”
The Premier made the announcement while highlighting what he described as the territory’s continued financial resilience. He noted that the government approved a budget exceeding $550 million in 2025, which he said was the largest budget in the territory’s history.
Premier Wheatley also pointed to favourable assessments from external ratings agencies. “At the same time, the Virgin Islands continues receiving strong external validation of our financial management systems through agencies such as Standard & Poor’s and the Caribbean Information and Credit Rating Services,” he said.
According to the Premier, government revenues have continued to perform strongly this year. He reported that recurrent revenue had reached approximately $89.07 million so far in 2026, exceeding expectations and surpassing the figure recorded during the corresponding period last year.
The Premier also highlighted the contribution of the financial services sector, noting that the Financial Services Commission had generated approximately $40.88 million in revenue, which he said reflected continued international demand for the territory’s financial services products.
“These achievements matter because strong public finances create stronger possibilities: The ability to invest more, to build more, to improve lives and to prepare our territory for the future,” Dr Wheatley stated.
The Protocols for Effective Financial Management were introduced in 2012 as part of an agreement between the Virgin Islands and the United Kingdom to promote prudent fiscal oversight, debt management, and financial accountability across the territory’s public finances.
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Terrifying prospect!
Not a single audit completed in over a decade. Just keeps getting more and more insane! How?
I have to hand it to the Premier and how he gets away with the $hit that he does, I’ll never understand. But he is like Teflon, crafty, and has out maneuvered everyone in this political game! For that, I begrudgingly respect him. But what a disaster for this country, and even more so, the long-term future outlook!
As Salty Fish, Mr. Wheatley’s administration has done nothing to have the government books audited. If you want to borrow monies that seems foolish, but then perhaps there may be reasons not to have such an audit, few of which relate to good accounting practices.
Then there is the $ 100 million loan the government has recently taken out supposedly for infrastructure work. The terms of the loan have never been fully disclosed (i.e. interest rates, duration of loan, terms of default, collateral, etc.), plus the govt’s long history of never having completed any project either on time or within budget.
And now, Mr. Wheatley wants softer loan terms from the UK because of alleged (not verifiable without audit) increase in revenues, clearly oblivious to the fact that lending money has to do with ability to pay (cash flow) more than six months of increased revenues on one particular year. Twenty years ago or so, the Territory’s GDP exceeded $ 1 billion, now it’s less than half, again relying on the Territory’s unaudited statements.
Dream on.
Audits should be done good, bad or ugly. Its called bookkeeping, transparency, accountability. Everything the premier touts but as we see, doesn’t hold up to.
Lets get some relaxation on bank loans and high interest.
relax on them parties one time
THE LIVES OF ALL PUBLIC OFFICERS HAVE IMPROVED SIGNIFICANTLY UNDER THE VIP. A MUCH NEEDED PAY RAISE, INCREMENTS PAID, NEW ESHS, ROAD PAVING AND IMPROVEMENTS,ETC. IT’S BEST WE LEAVE THEM IN POWER!! MINUS A FEW OF THEM.
Public needs more information as to where and whom all the previous spending has all gone to and on what , where are the government accounts and what independent organization will be auditing them if and when they arrive!