Walwyn pledges active PAC meetings and special committees
Opposition Leader Myron Walwyn has pledged to revitalize the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the parliamentary body tasked with overseeing government spending and ensuring fiscal accountability.
While the frequency of PAC meetings under Walwyn’s predecessor, Ronnie Skelton, remains unclear, Walwyn has committed to making the committee more active.
“During my tenure as Leader of His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, I am stating emphatically that we can expect a far more active Public Accounts Committee in the coming weeks to ensure accountability and transparency,” Walwyn declared during his first public address in the role on Thursday, March 27.
Plans to probe NHI and water woes
According to Walwyn, the PAC is just one among other parliamentary committees he plans to strengthen. He announced his intention to establish Special Select Committees, a provision allowed under the House of Assembly’s Standing Orders. These temporary committees are designed to investigate urgent matters requiring in-depth scrutiny.
“It is also my intention to work along with the other Leaders in the House of Assembly to form Special Select Committees to examine key public concerns, such as National Health Insurance and other healthcare issues, the current assistance grant programme under the Social Development Department, and the lack of a reliable supply of potable water, to name a few,” Walwyn stated.
He further explained that these committees, upon completing their investigations and gathering evidence, will compile reports with recommendations for improvement. “I see this as an important instrument in enhancing the delivery of service to the people of the Virgin Islands,” he added.
Walwyn was sworn in as Leader of the Opposition on Monday, backed by political allies Melvin ‘Mitch’ Turnbull and Stacy Mather, both members of the Ronnie Skelton-led Progressive Virgin Islands Movement (PVIM). Within 24 hours of being unseated as Opposition Leader, Skelton dissolved PVIM and rejoined the National Democratic Party (NDP) under Marlon Penn’s leadership.
Walwyn is also an NDP member.
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This is the best person to be leader of the opposition and we all know it. Walwyn got sworn in on Monday and already we are hearing him. Ronnie was there for 2 years and not even one statement about anything in those years.
Myron, the haters are out there but you keep pushing on.
Will you directly acknowledge and address the role private providers play in exploiting the system, and implement real reforms to stop it? Or will you evade the issue—just as your former opposition leader recently did when discussing the NHI system? To his credit, he was right that the system doesn’t need to be dismantled, but rather reformed. Yet, his failure to confront the role of private providers in its shortcomings—choosing instead to place the blame on government inaction—was a glaring display of political cowardice. And perhaps that explains why he is no longer leading the opposition.
Hijacked Ronnie’s position…I dont want to hear a thing from he.
Hear the exact entitlement that the same Ronnie has. Ronnie’s position. What makes it Ronnie’s post’s. Isn’t this based on the majority support? You fully well know that Ronnie wasn’t doing anything
So see why the BVi is a mess!
And therein lies the problem. Ronnie’s position? You all think this is a family heirloom to be bequeathed to heirs and successors.
Did you hear him say it was his position. Trust no matter how you all pout and fuss, Ronnie is a steady hand and we need that now. Speaking eloquently does not make one a great leader; that comes with years of leadership and guts.
So Ronnie is absolving himself as power hungry and trying to sway leadership away from the alliance decision by capitulating to Marlon Penn, they could do this in 2023 the night they won the election as majority seat, but over night now that these 3 brilliant young man start the merging of the opposition forces against sowandie them mad, because it’s now we are hearing from the snake or hon.marlon Penn that he was offered deputy premiere, and in 2023 all that information was known to Lorna smith and she cross the floor and upset your chance for power, it’s laughable that Ronnie and Marlon can merge the party together in a blink of eye, that night in 2023 was the time you all should have come together.
Three brilliant young men where? Myron is the only smart one of the bunch and time will back up that statement. We now have VIP and NDP, Myron is a member of NDP. Where does that leave Turnbull and Mather?
You don’t sound very smart. We now have the Alliance. 3 strong leaders prepared to work and build. You can go siddung with that narrative about Mather and Turnbull.
But they said they have not left or resigned from their parties so what is it?!
Hope he start investing when his company Catered for the HoA allegedly without permission or declaring
Go fly a kite you fool
If the then PAC was doing their job, you would not need to be asking this question now.
Mr.Walwyn is a great leader. Under him, education made great strides. Many of the initiatives, the present minister couldn’t even maintain. National pride was pushed and our students were challenged to do better in terms of their grades.
He’ll make an awesome premier. I look forward to his tenure as premier. He will make the BVI proud.
@ Judas your name speak for itself, poor you!!
So you rather a leader who hasn’t done snatching to one whom you know is working right out the gate. Make that make sense. Some of you blind loyalty is what has this territory in disarray.
Mr. Walwyn was definitely one of the best Ministers of Education. I look forward to seeing what he will do as Leader of the Opposition.
Accountability is not hatred and every criticism is not born of hate. Often it comes from a place of support. But blind fandom is void of Accountability and is how corruption happens. Ronnie showed great leadership by not polarizing financial services although he showed poor leadership in trying a no confidence vote during the COI. Walwyn now gets to lead as he chooses but he set an example of undermining so those following him will eventually do what they have seen. Mather and Mitch will both undermine him at some point because they have followed that pattern and Mather has been following without real political savvy. He is the most vulnerable and he hasn’t realized it yet and he has betrayed his voting base NDP&PVIM to help the others achieve their agenda. Whatever they promised him had to be comforting. I think he forgot he ran at large and the others have districts that will vote them back in regardless. Basically he is an expendible on their paths to premiership.
Hon. Walwyn was duly elected as leader of NDP , Hon. Skelton preferred to mash up to party rather than follow his lead. Is that not undermining? Give me a break with this selective outrage.
All were seen heading parties; guess who lost? Love him or hate Same results it will be the same result
Are you God? So hold Ronnie and Marlon accountable for their inability to get the merger to occur, only after the alliance came out, and leader of opposition removed, energy appears to be had. Anyways, you can blog all you want to attempt to discredit the alliance. We the people aren’t silly! You get 1 vote at the polls.
Sounds good Hon. Walwyn! You can’t do any less than the former PAC head! This is the oppositions’ committee that holds fiscal responsibility for government oversight. For decades this useful committee has been under-utilized to the detriment of the public. Please ignore the noise of the few paid detractors that can only challenge you on trivial, playground tactics and not on your record of delivery. You have two other proven leaders with you in Mather and Turnbull. I applaud Turnbull for his stance against the status-quo’s that both Penn and Skelton are trying extremely hard to maintain with the aid of the two Cline’s that glaringly oppose CHANGE to their personal interests!
NDP and PVIM leaders have tried to abort any chance of coalition by stymieing any/all executive body meetings and just want to do as they both please without adequate consultation with the I3’s! Even within their parties they BOTH are against any DEMOCRATIC process – so why join with either/or?
The voting public are much wiser to fall for the political tactics and lack of morality by the incumbent government, NDP & PVIM leadership all in the name of power and maintaining the Old Boys Klub!
if they wanted power they had the opportunity to switch, ahead of corner lady too
Every election cycle we hear the nonsense about independent and third-parties, people tired of the usual parties xyz. Please stop the foolishness. The BVI will forever be a majority 2-party contest when elections come around. The PVIM and NDP were one even if they didn’t believe it. The same people that voted NDP, voted PVIM. If they really want to beat VIP they need one party that is together. Looking at what’s happening now VIP would be assured another 4yrs or we will have another hop-skip-jump coalition.
So let me get this right, there is a government organization to look at waste. For example 2M toilet block in Brewers Bay that is never open, A 7M ailine that never flew, A wall that cost over 1M, DDM costing 9m and is incomplete. Roads being put down without using tar to stick them down. When this washed away the tax payers wait for 7 years to do a bad job again.
Lets be real this is closing the gate after the horse has bolted. Contractors need to be held accountable and jobs need to be done on budget. Its deplorable that the tax payers just keep bailing out the government for poor decisions.
Voters can see through this man: he will tank at the next General Election. he is too greedy for power. That is his Achilles heel.
Out of Marlon, Ronnie and Myron I prefer Myron hands down.
Marlon is lazy and makes promises that he has no intention of keeping. Skelton drives around in his fancy car with the windows up and you never see him when you have a problem. Myron is down to earth, accessible and helpful.
So yes voters can see through him that he is a good representative
OK Myron
Only on this small island people feel they should feel free to run up on a politician and tell them their problems. That is something that can prove quite ungainly and in other places dangerous. It never happened before the VIP gravy train starting toot tooting through Town. Hon. Skelton helps many, but he doesn’t have to strut around Town looking cocky to do it.
I see no problem with Hon. Skelton driving around with his fancy car with his glass up. I do it too and so do you. If you need an appointment with a professional, you call their office, or go to their District Office. His is right in the middle of Town. Jealousy is raising its ugly head around here. That is not a valid reason to dislike a politician. We will still vote for him. He knows VALUE FOR MONEY. Blogging nonsense.
No matter how much you blog against Hon. Penn and Hon. Skelton. Mark my words you will not become the Premier of these Virgin Islands and the 2 sn**es that joined you will pay the ultimate price.
Walwyn was like a breath of fresh air. Thank you sir for giving us some hope.
Ronnie is the source of all this mess and he continues to do so. He break up the party because he wasn’t made the leader. Now because he lost the leader of the opposition position he dissolve a whole party without telling the members. Smh
Who more thirsty and hungry for power than Natalie and the Frog from the 3rd!! Who more power hungry then Marlon, Ronnie, Lorna, Fraser, Karl, Sharie and the others that support this LAME DUCK government!! Now Natalie want to ‘edit’ the constitution to make new titles to reward the same selfish people that he has surrounded himself with. Marlon and Ronnie need join VIP as they all share the same ideology- self above everyone else!
Myron is the best person for the position. The truth is he was already functioning as the leader already. Ronnie is not up to the task and he knows that. We have to stop rewarding mediocrity and entitlement. Even Marlon complained about Ronnie under perform.
OK Myron
MADHOUSE MOUSE ‘ SO JUDGE WIGGIE YOU GOT TWO NEW NAMES FOR -2025-AND BOI AS ANOTHER BLOGGER SAID , YOU COULDN’T OF CHOOSEN A BETTER NAME FOR YOURSELF SO WE WILL CALL YOU * JUDGE-JUDAS * ( STOP BEING A MENACE , AND STAY ON YOUR YELLO SITE AND PLAY WITH YOUR WIG . USING ALL KINDS OF FANCY & WEIRD NAMES IS OT FOOLING US , YOU EVEN USING OTHER
PEOPLE’S NAME , LIKE “CINDY ” LOOKS LIKE NO ONE’S NAME IS SAFE WITH YOU , LOOKS LIKE ONE OF THOSE LIL BOYZ SLIP. SOME COKE ON YOU , BECAUSE WE WENT TO SCHOOL TOGETHER BUT I NEVER SAW THIS NERD MENTALITY YOU , / WELL YOU ARE GOOD AT EMBELISILING EVERYTHING , SO YOU PROBABLY DID A GOOD JOB AT CONCEALING IT . BUT NOW YOU ARE EXPOSING YOUR YRUR SELF / AND VERY ARROGANT WITH YOU FAKE SELF
This entitlement attitude that we have is what is keeping back the BVI. Neither Ronnie nor Marlon have what it takes to lead this modern BVI. They are giving the impression that others are power hungry but the truth is that they are the ones who are.
Why couldn’t they come together in 2023. They were fighting about who will be leader. And nothing happened.
Ronnie destroyed two parties because he couldn’t get what he wanted. He destroyed NDP because he couldn’t be leader. He dissolved PVIM because he lost the leader of opposition. If your own members voted against him in favour of another leader that says lot to me about Ronnie.
Myron is the better leader and that is a fact.
I am convinced the we don’t love this country. We are more loyal to individuals than our own home. Ronnie was not producing. Whether you like him or not it is the truth. So he must remain in that important post because his name is Ronnie Skelton? Come on people. A dead opposition leader will make a dead premier. If that is the case let us stick with Sowande then. I swear we crazy
As the 3rd was in VIP and the at-large was in NDP, why would anyone try that again?
The part that annoys me the most and makes me see who the real power hungry ones are was the fact that those PVIM and NDP leaders sat down and did nothing to come together until the alliance was formed with Myron, Mitch and Mather. They only moved because they felt that these guys especially Myron would emerge as leader as they wanted to preserve their positions.
Ronnie said he was not running again. This is his story every election. All of a sudden since the alliance formed he changed his mind to run again.
For 6 years those two parties couldn’t come together. Before the 2023 elections they didn’t come together because Marlon wanted to be premier for 2 years and Ronnie got 2 years. They taking our country to play musical chairs with it. Marlon is hardly fit to be a minister let alone be Premier.
Now Ronnie dissolve PVIM without telling his members and his colleagues who ran with him and join back the NDP. PVIM was formed by Ronnie because he lost the NDP elections to Myron. Now PVIM got dissolved and he rejoined NDP 24 hours after Myron replaced him as Leader of the Opposition.
Ronnie Skelton … If he is not in charge or doesn’t win something he destroys it. He destroyed NDP and he has now destroyed PVIM because of his losses.
I am diagnosing Ronnie with a bad case of entitlement!
It was not Ronnie who destroyed NDP.
Myron must carry water for us but he must not drink a drop of it. Interpret that.
ronnie is a nice guy but several times now he has been outplayed by other politicians. He doesn’t seem to have the fire needed to be a good opposition leader, we need someone who will hold government accountable and call them out whenever they try to do anything that is detrimental to the people, like him or not myron seems to be doing that
Those saying Ronnie destroyed NDP have to say that because if they tell the truth then Turnbull’s credibility will come into question. Those with the better memories know it was the Turnbull/Clines that dismantled the NDP and pulled Skelton with them.
that one has no credibility; lies