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Promise delayed, not denied: Prospect Reef workers will be paid ‘in few weeks’ — Premier

What remains of the Prospect Reef Resort on Tortola. (BVI News photo)

Employees of Prospect Reef have been told they must wait a while longer before they are paid their outstanding salaries by the government.

The employees have been working without pay for roughly 14 months and were promised months ago that they would have been paid in full by August 2019.

Two months past that promised date, Premier Andrew Fahie said: “A promise delayed does not mean a promise denied. But I do apologize to them and we are going to make sure that they get paid.”

Why are the employees still not paid?

Fahie, who made that statement last week while answering questions from Third District Representative Julian Fraser, said there were a few reasons behind the delayed payment.

“First, Prospect Reef is a shareholding company established by legislation in this House of Assembly including a memorandum of articles of association. Fifty percent of the shares are held by the Permanent Secretary in the Premier’s Office, and the other fifty percent is held by the Financial Secretary on behalf of the government,” the Premier said.

“Secondly, under the Prospect Reef Management Act 2005, there is to be a non-executive body including a managing director to manage the day to day affairs of the Prospect Reef Management Company,” he added.

Premier Fahie told the House of Assembly that a new executive body needs to be appointed before the payments can be made and plans are already underway in that regard.

He said: “As shareholders, the government is addressing the request for additional monies by the company to pay its debt including outstanding salaries to staff as soon as possible. The salaries owed to staff should be paid in the next few weeks given that these areas are now cleared up. The delay to pay sooner is regrettable, but it was one that was tied up in legal confines,” he remarked.

Pay the people 

Fraser then asked the Premier if he did not know about the said ‘legal confines’ when he had initially promised the payments by August 2019.

In response, the Premier said: “There is more in the mortar than in the pestle with this one.”

“They will be paid but I want to tell this Honourable House that it is not just about salaries. And if the government had intervened to pay on top of the board which had certain concerns, we were going into some legal grounds that we were advised not to go,” he further said.

“While I agree the persons who are working there who were owed before we got into office and not saying that it is justified, it is not that simple. But in a few weeks’ time I can say that all the parameters have been dealt with to have them paid,” the Premier said.

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9 Comments

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  1. Wait what?! says:

    Why haven’t they gone out and gotten JOBS instead of waiting around to be paid to do NOTHING. Prospect Reef no longer exist. Don’t pay these lazy b******s.

    Like 22
    Dislike 6
    • CW says:

      STRUPE COMMENT as usual

      They want their money from the work ALREADY COMPLETED. DO YOU WANT PAID FOR WORK YOU DO AT YOUR JOB? WHAT MAKES YOU ANY DIFFERENT EXCEPT YOU POST STRUPE COMMENTS THAT HURT BVI? Always with the negativity and pretending to know everything. BVI doesn’t need shallow STRUPES making dumb remarks about topics YOU OBVIOUSLY KNOW ZERO ABOUT. YOU SOUND LIKE THOSE PEOPLE YOU ALWAYS HATE ON- LOOK IN THE MIRROR STRUPE, YOU LACK COMMON SENSE

      Like 4
      Dislike 13
  2. What work?? says:

    What work are the doing at Prospect? Everybody keep talking about the pay but when employment is there at prospect or is it their severance pay they are getting?

    Like 10
  3. Ausar says:

    This reads of a really sad episode!

    Would you, Premier,work for fourteen months without any form of payment, and WAIT for any government to offer payment without seeking legal advice?

    No, you wouldn’t, and I would suggest, since you are a man of faith, a man of principle, and a man of great leadership in this country, to expedite sufficient funds, post haste, to lessen the sufferings of these hard working men and women!

    Like 6
    Dislike 6
  4. Time shares!?! says:

    Just curious…
    What ever happened to the time share ordeal at PR?
    Someone at P.R. sold time shares to foreigners and couldn’t deliver. The time share customers were requesting refunds or were threatening to sue. Who collected for the time shares and who did the refunding?
    This story disappeared without an explanation.

  5. Something's Fishy says:

    What people at Prospect Reef? I want to see a list of positions that are being paid! If the gardener and the groundskeeper are getting paid, for what exactly are they being paid? Is there supposed to be someone manning the gate, if so, when?
    Nothing about this sounds right.

    • Deh Watcha says:

      I would like to know who records their time.

      How can you work for a year without pay??

      You can do it by working somewhere else.

  6. What really going on? says:

    Premier who are you paying at prospect Reef and what services are you paying them for? This place is in disrepair since Urma. Are these paybacks for your friends under the disguise of Prospect Reef. Shame Shame. Bully GOvernment. YO must really think the people stupid.

  7. Dee says:

    I lived at prospect prior to Irma, I went to a friends home to house to ride out the hurricane, when I returned a few days after the hurricane my apartment was looted, all valuables were Stolen and there was supposed to be working

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