The Covid-19 outbreak in the Virgin Islands shows few signs of slowing down, with at least 19 people dead over the past nine days and health workers struggling to respond as 1,604 known active cases ravage the community. To fight back against the disease, which...
July 23, 2021
July 23, 2021
Commissioner of Inquiry asks airport boss to resubmit his affidavit
After BVI Airports Authority Managing Director Clive Smith testified before the Commission of Inquiry for a little over an hour on Monday, COI Commissioner Sir Gary Hickinbottom ended the hearing early. Mr. Smith, he explained, had submitted an inaccurate affidavit and failed to provide several...
July 23, 2021
Police use pepper spray to disperse gathering
As some residents continue to socialise in defiance of the pleas from health officials to stay home and limit person-to-person contact, a police officer used pepper spray to disperse a group of people gathered around a domino game in East End on Tuesday after they...
July 23, 2021
VG graduates focus on sustainable future
Even though the territory is seeing some of its strictest social distancing measures since the beginning of the pandemic, the students and staff of Bregado Flax Educational Centre Secondary Division adapted to find ways of celebrating the Class of 2021’s journey. A live broadcast on...
July 23, 2021
Clerk: HOA was ‘overwhelmed’ with Covid applications
The Commission of Inquiry called House of Assembly Clerk Phyllis Evans to testify on July 14, asking her why incomplete applications for pandemic aid were accepted, how ministers decide who should get funding, and related questions about the HOA assistance grant programme. Ms. Evans explained...
July 23, 2021
COI probes Sea Cows Bay harbour project
To investigate claims of overspending, potential conflicts of interest, and a lack of oversight on the unfinished Sea Cows Bay Harbour Development Project, the Commission of Inquiry called opposition member Julian Fraser to testify on July 14. The hearing largely centred around concerns raised in...
July 22, 2021
Inquiry hearings on hold for now
After securing a six-month extension to submit the Commission of Inquiry’s report to Governor John Rankin, Commissioner Sir Gary Hickinbottom announced on July 14 that his team would pause the witness hearings it has been holding regularly since early May. Sir Gary said in a...
July 21, 2021
Ex-auditor grilled about claims he thwarted auditor
Wendell Gaskin, a former deputy financial secretary who represented the Finance Ministry on the BVI Ports Authority Board during the time of the troubled cruise pier project said that until this month he had not seen a 2014 report from the auditor general criticising the...
July 20, 2021
The bees of Virgin Gorda
On a recent Wednesday afternoon, Jahnai Caul and Ariq Flax-Clarke searched for signs of honey, larvae and queens during a routine check-up on their bee colonies on Virgin Gorda. “Those are all signs of a healthy colony,” Mr. Caul said while inspecting a colony. “We...
July 21, 2021
Work permit system goes online
A new electronic work permit system has arrived just as the Covid-19 pandemic has led to more and more business being conducted remotely. Premier Andrew Fahie, during a virtual rollout ceremony on Monday, said the system — first tested in early 2019 — had arrived...
July 21, 2021
UN: Tourism crash to cost trillions
The crash in tourism due to pandemic-related restrictions could cause a loss of more than $4 trillion to the global gross domestic product in 2020 and 2021, according to a United Nations Commission on Trade and Development report published late last month. Vaccine uptake will...
