Governor John Rankin chaired a Cabinet meeting on May 12 at the Financial Services Commission’s Conference Room in Pasea. All members were present. During the meeting, Cabinet took the following actions, according to a summary provided by the Cabinet Office.
1. Reviewed and approved the draft cruise protocols developed by the technical working group under the Premier’s Office in the first instance, with the understanding that the recommendations are to be guided by Caribbean Public Health Agency’s regional guidance.
2. Noted the terms of reference and job description for the post of administrative assistant to the junior minister of tourism on the National Tourism Plan Project. 3. Reviewed the evaluation report submitted by the Central Tenders Board’s technical evaluation sub-committee, which was approved by the CTB on April 20 and agreed that:
a. all tenders, which were considered as part of the report, be awarded a non-exclusive contract for consultancy services for recovery of unclaimed property and assets for the Virgin Islands, on terms equivalent or no less favourable than the terms agreed with Ernst and Young, the initial awardee approved by Cabinet on Jan. 13;
b. the Ministry of Finance instruct the Attorney General’s Chambers to draft contracts to include the fees for awardees that will be determined based on a percentage of the value of the assets recovered during the term of the engagement, which will only be due after the assets are successfully recovered and government has received the value of the assets; and
c. it should be established that each of the contracted companies have the requisite licences and/or approval to carry out the relevant work to perform such tasks.
4. Considered and approved the Virgin Islands Final Progress Report on the Implementation of the Recommendations from the 2016 National Risk Assessment Report; noted the report only covers competent authorities and law enforcement agencies as the jurisdiction is undertaking separate money laundering and terrorist financing risk assessments for the financial services sector and designated non-financial businesses and professions; and decided that:
a. the report be laid on the table of the House of Assembly at the next convenient sitting to highlight the progress made since the publication of the first progress report;
b. once the report is laid that the AML/CFT Implementation Unit takes the necessary steps to ensure publication of the report, including publication on the websites of all competent authorities and law enforcement agencies as well as the government’s official website; and
c. the unit develops an action plan outlining the steps to be taken to assist the relevant agencies with developing revised action plans to address any outstanding issues highlighted in the report.
5. Considered and approved the Recreation Trust’s recommendation that Eustace Freeman be appointed as the executive director of the trust for a period of three years in accordance to Section 6A(1) of the Recreation Trust (Amendment) Act, 2012.
6. Approved the recommendation for Tiber Health Public Benefit Corporation to establish a medical school in the territory; decided that the corporation be granted a provisional licence pending accreditation by the Accreditation Commission on Colleges of Medicine and that a full licence be granted once accreditation through ACCM is obtained; and
a. noted the steps in the accreditation process as communicated by ACCM and agreed that they be implemented based on the recommended timeline, following vetting by the Attorney General’s Chambers, namely:
i. the signed recognition letter;
ii. the resolution to allow ACCM to undertake an evaluation process of Tiber Health; and
iii. the tri-partite heads of agreement.
7. Decided that approval be granted to the government to re-enter into a lease agreement over a private property to expand an existing reservoir to improve the storage capacity to improve water distribution to residents on the western side of Tortola.
This information was provided in a summary Gazetted on May 20.