UK won’t outrightly tell BVI to cut public service but they’ve hinted it
The BVI‘s political leader has said he believes that although it is not explicitly stated, the UK wants the territory to drastically reduce its public service.
Addressing the House of Assembly recently, Premier Andrew Fahie said the UK’s intention of a chop to the BVI’s public service is suggested in the conditions of the £300 million loan guarantee Britain has offered for hurricane recovery.
The Premier said the loan guarantee is something the territory wants but the BVI remains concerned about the conditions attached to the offer; even as dialogue on the matter is ongoing.
He said if the BVI was to stray outside of the proposed borrowing ratios attached to those conditions, the UK would become empowered to automatically approve all future budgets.
And if the UK were to take control of the BVI‘s budget, Fahie said some numbers or percentages of debt-to-income ratios that were suggested in passing conversation would only be feasible if the BVI would cut the largest section of its recurrent budget.
He then noted that the largest section of the recurrent budget was the salaries for public officers.
“So they’ll never say that you must cut public officers. You’ll never hear that. And they will say ‘we never told them that’, and they’ll be correct. But read between the lines,” the Premier urged.
He said several terms and conditions attached to the loan guarantee documents are still left to be ironed out, while others remain unclear and undefined.
He pointed to two specific terms — ‘other mechanisms’ and ‘other measures’; both of which the UK said they would reserve the right to implement at any time.
The concerned Premier said these terms could mean anything and government is reluctant to accept such a condition.
“So, you want me as a Minister of Finance to sign onto a document that is saying these kinds of conditions with other measures and other mechanisms that we don’t know the definition of them?” Fahie questioned.
Without a clear definition in place, the Premier suggested that this could mean that the UK would want him to hand over control of the BVI‘s financial services sector in the event the BVI defaults on the conditions.
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It needed cutting long time. Andrew just ain’t got the balls to do it.
Yup he need those votes. No worries F** Albert the COI is going to remove you. You have limited time. Prepare yourself for incarceration
Should we believe this?
if you cut, cut at the top the ministers need a pay cut, they are not doing a good job
At this rate, anyone can bring out a “Lie of the day” news column and will never run out of new lies to post every single day of the year if this praying, deceiving fowl keep talking!
More ridiculous fearmongering. Most public officers are voters and it’s in his best interests to scare them into thinking the UK is coming for their jobs. Why would the UK do that? How is it in their best interest? The UK knows we don’t need fewer public officers, we need fewer corrupt elected officials.
We need less interference by the corrupt UK.
There are lots of small islands, provinces, counties, towns, etc. on earth with a population of around 30 thousand souls that don’t support 2 to 3 thousand public servants to run their government. The BVI government could efficiently operate with less than 1000 responsible alert public servants.
And decent equipment, IT and systems.
In the absence of unemployment benefit, we have an overstaffed public service.
Those counties have state and national governments to do the work that the small Territories have to do on their own. Apples and oranges.
Millions of dollars are wasted every year by this countries inept government. Hours and hours of no productivity while the tax payers are forced to endure appointments that are not kept, lost application forms, changing rules and procedures that are never posted. We don’t need less public officers we need public officers with good honest work ethics.
I do know there are hardworking Public officers but there are also employees who are present 20 hours a week and get paid for 40. Not sure how many of the 20 hours are spent on Social Media. I do not know who will be able to turn that ship around.
Premier the few that hate you and love the British running our country cannot remove your Government. They all know what you are saying is on point.
A fact you have VISION problems / there you go again blogging under different names once more ? idiot
I wonder why he wasnt so critical of the CSC contracts. He selectively know when to scrutinize documents.
UK going ultimately outrightly get rid ah you
When he is cutting, I hope he starts with those who should not be working for government period!
Like the uk, he too is hinting!
What Fahie is saying is nothing new. They have been hinting at this for years it is just that past and present Governments have not taken the hint.