UK must approve BVI’s budget before it passes
The British Virgin Islands must get approval from the United Kingdom before it can pass its 2019 budget.
Premier Andrew Fahie said he made that discovery when he became Minister of Finance less than a month ago.
The UK now has a say in the BVI’s budget largely because of the £300 million loan guarantee it (Britain) is offering to fund the BVI’s recovery and development efforts.
“I’m coming to learn that it’s not only up to us with the budget,
UK rejects BVI’s latest MTFP
The MTFP assesses the territory’s fiscal and economic performance, presents its development and financial objectives over the subsequent three years, and sets out the path to be followed in order to meet these objectives
While noting that the NDP had ‘rightly’ began preparing a 2019 budget before being voted out of office, he said the UK rejected their latest proposed MTFP.
“It (the MTFP) went to the United Kingdom before I took office. But, since taking office, we realised that the UK didn’t agree with the MTFP so we have to get it back up there [to them]. So, there is a lot of things that we didn’t know that was agreed upon and we’re learning about them slowly. But, I am not daunted. I will keep the people informed but we will get it passed,” the Premier said on the Honestly Speaking radio show on Tuesday.
Challenge
He said passing this year’s budget will be a challenge. The budget must be passed by April 30.
That deadline was decided when the territory’s present and ongoing ‘temporary budget’ was debated last December. At the time, former premier Dr D Orlando Smith successfully sought permission from the House of Assembly to dip into the Consolidated Fund and withdraw $138.9 million so government could continue to operate after the start of the 2019 financial year.
The House agreed to use those monies for up to four months (by April 30) or until the 2019 budget is passed — whichever comes first.
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Andrew come on please this was done when Ralph was in there 2007-2011. Dancia let the cat out of the bag on the podium in Prahm Town at a political campaign meeting.
It was your virgin Islands party that led the country to this. Your bad seeds that you sowed are now in your face and the people is who feeling it.
The people are fedup with the whole system of crookery.
Stop lying. Everyone knows that you are talking foolishness. The NDP has set the BVI back for years.
Please it is not a lie it is true find the Video the protocols were been put in place. People like you need to open your eyes and your mind to truth and not nonsense. But time will tell.
who sign the potocol in 2012 and said david cameron was eating out of the palm of their hands and they get what they wanted
The BVI is moving in reverse. In 1979, during the Williard Wheatley Admin, the VI went off grant-in-aid; finance transferred from Governor to local government. Now due to poor financial performance, the UK is tightening the screws. For a £300,000,000 ($402,000,000) co-signed loan, in addition to the previously imposed long-term financial protocol, it has imposed the Recovery Development Agency (RDA) and now the medium-term protocol. Perhaps, instead of being hog-tied by the UK, it should pursue other borrowing options. If they are only co-signing, would hate to see the restrictions that would be imposed if they had given the VI a grant as the French, Dutch…….etc .did fir their territories. But beggars cannot be choosers. But oh snap! The BVI is not begging, for residents have to pay back every penny of money borrowed.
Moreover, what the Premier is discovering is what this village idiot and town crier has been shouting from Sage Mountain about. The government is busy as a bee promising all kinds of tings without having a full grasp of conditions on the ground. Cannot manage anything effectively if you don’t know the state of tings. True, it should not let perfection be the enemy of the good or let analysis lead to paralysis. Nonetheless, it should take a deliberate pause to find out the lay of the land before laying out policy positions. MCW has the right approach in assessing the condition in the ministry before broadcasting any actions. ?? Kye! Premier Fahie, call a territory-wide standdown and conduct a government-wide assessment.
Abolish NHI
@RT, tweak, not abolish. Few, if any, programmes are perfect at rollout. They are tweaked as needed to improve them. The NHI provides the largest access to, to largest number of people. Let’s not forget that the BVI has a small population and insurance is the pooling of resources to share in the risk. The larger the population the more the cost can be distributed among people, lowering individual cost. Individual cost will be higher than the cost of being in a pool.
Mr, Premier, what do you say? Mek ve du dis ting nah. The suggested government-wide assessment mek sense.
The Rattler will Strike, Strike and Strike again. However, the Rattler must strike with purpose. The Rattler must take effective aim to Strike the target. The findings should guide the way forward. Announcing policies, plans, programmes….etc wily nilly without having/knowing all the information has embarrassing consequences and is not an effective way to govern. “Premier Fahie, call a territory-wide standdown and conduct a government-wide assessment,” endorsed the blogger’s recommendation.
Banks have a set of requirements for a loan. I see nothing wrong with the UK wanting to see that the money is spent properly. That is a lot of money.
A good working relationship with the UK is a good thing for the BVI. Yes I have some concerns about some of the things they are doing but the rest of the world is also dealing with these issues. And since we are not independent we have to work within a framework.
agree 100% Turtle Dove
Another NDP success! Make the BVI great again.
The NDP lied to us. Now the truth is out because the NDP said that the budget does not have to be approved by the UK. Now we know the truth.
Look what the past government corruption has caused us all to go backward rather than forward.
Sleepless nights … get moving then. We have less than 45 days. But like how we were up all day & all night campaigning for votes, we can also stay up all day & night and get the budget done to a satisfactory level so it wouldn’t get rejected a second time.
I am confident that the Premier will get this done. He and his team are in our prayers.
Andrew Please Stop. This is a measurement for Allllllllllllllllllllllll OTS not just the BVI. And this has been done from time the VIP was squandering money left right and center. Stop the campaigning and the underlying blame game and get to to work.
Why are we acting as if this is news? This has been the case since VIP left office in 2011 where the protocols and everything else was put in place. The UK basically said that they’re essentially responsible for our debt if we can’t pay it so they want to look at our finances before finalizing the budgets. This is not a BVI thing, all Overseas Territories are required to do the same thing.
No prayer can circumvent outside rulership and exercise of power over one’s internal domain.
One man over there [the offsprings of my ancestors enslavers] has the power to run and control every aspect of my house and home over here.
What is wrong with that picture?
How much longer are we going to sit aside and look while they take over our government, finances and lands?
The NDP has set us back 100 years. NDP signed the laws for good financial governance that were agreed with the UK then turned around and broke the same laws. Fahie and Fraser brought this up many times during the 8 years on opposition.
NDP never listened and only got more stubborn when the people gave them that second term. Before NDP divided into 2 parties their members challenged Dr Smith publically to hand over the ministry of finance position because he wasn’t doing a good job. It wasn’t only biased VIP supporters that saw the ship sinking. Some people can vote but they don’t pay attention to politics only during campaign season then we end up with “nice guys” leading instead of leaders leading. Anytime a government has 3 doctors and not one of them was minister of health that shows that they are mixed up. They aren’t catering to their strengths. It’s all about personal interest and power.
@Blah I approve this message; especially “Anytime a government has 3 doctors and not one of them was minister of health that shows that they are mixed up. They aren’t catering to their strengths. It’s all about personal interest and power”. Its best referred to as the “Square peg in round hole effect”.
In this day and age information is everywhere; available to those who care to know. Yet some find it convenient to bury their head in the sand; similar to the Ostrich does.
Yes Andrew. Fool us off. Turn us stupidy! We deserve it. Can’t wait for the next lie tomorrow.
This is not news,We have known this for a few years now.
@Blah I approve this message; especially “Anytime a government has 3 doctors and not one of them was minister of health that shows that they are mixed up. They aren’t catering to their strengths. It’s all about personal interest and power”. Its best referred to as the “Square peg in round hole effect”.
In this day and age information is everywhere; available to those who care to know. Yet some find it convenient to bury their head in the sand; similar to the Ostrich does.
The protocols were signed between the BVI and UK goverments on April 23, 2012 by the then Premier Dr.Smith.
On July 3, 2012, Fraser moved a motion in the HOA to debate the terms of the protocols as he felt that the government would be handcuffed if they were to comply. The NDP dismissed the claims in the HOA.
It was later revealed In a series of letters dated 2015 and 2016 from then governor John Duncan to the Premier and financial secretary the concerns about many breaches in the protocols that were happening under NDP. Warning about value for money and lack of financial audits. He even specifically mentioned the catering for $96,000 for the training as bad spending. The governor was trying to help NDP fix the problems before they got out of control.
Fahie even called out the governor in early 2017 as he felt that the governor was having secret negotiations with NDP over the handling of the finances. In the last few months of Duncan as governor he became more outspoken about the way NDP was handling our finances and the lack of transparency and accountability.
In February 2017 Governor John Duncan verbally scolded the NDP in front of the Premier for lack of long proposed whistle blower protection and freedom of information act, lack of prioritizing funding of certain projects and facilities for locals comparing their willingness to spend on the Arbitration and Commercial court but not on the Magistrate Court. He talked about how they slashed the budget for law enforcement by almost 50%. He went as far as invoking his power under section 103 of our constitution for the first time ever to take almost $2 million for law enforcement. All of this led to the beginning of the RDA as the UK completely lost all hope in our competency of handling our own finance. The protocols signed in 2012 was a warning. The inaction from 2012 onward was seen as a slap in the face to the UK in which they have been punishing us ever since.
Yes D—-n scolded Dr. Smith then dipped his hands in BVI Tax payers money. No one is calling for investigation into what happened to that money. While we quick call one another thieves, they busy going with tax payers money.