The government won’t meet tomorrow’s deadline for completing the sweeping reforms recommended by the Commission of Inquiry, but it aims to finish the job by the end of next week, according to Premier Dr. Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley.
During a joint press conference this morning, Dr. Wheatley and Governor Daniel Pruce both sought to put a brave face on the latest delays.
However, they also acknowledged that the United Kingdom hasn’t lifted the order in council allowing the UK to implement temporary direct rule if the COI reforms aren’t completed as promised.
Dr. Wheatley said that 45 of the 48 reform measures have been completed, and he wants the rest finished by the time he and the governor travel to London for a Sept. 11 meeting to discuss the reform process with new UK Overseas Territories Minister Stephen Doughty.
Original deadline
The reforms, which are intended to improve governance in the Virgin Islands, were originally due to be completed in May.
But with only 29 completed at that time, Mr. Pruce pushed the deadline out to Aug. 31.
This morning, Dr. Wheatley said that “excellent progress” had been made on “the most robust” reform programme in VI history.
“I see a clear path to fully completing the COI recommendations, but we must be ever mindful that we will not sacrifice the quality of reform just to meet a particular date and tick a box,” he said.
Call for urgency
Mr. Pruce — who has responsibility for some of the delayed reforms — spoke similarly, but he also called for urgency in finishing the job.
“Now is not the time to slow down,” Mr. Pruce said. “Alongside completing those recommendations to a high standard, we also need to demonstrate an enduring commitment to actually implementing the reforms of the COI.”
Though the governor acknowledged that the UK government — which is under new leadership following a July 4 election that swept the Labour Party into power — had not yet responded to his May quarterly report on the COI reforms, he said he believes the new UK ministers will want to see sustained commitment.
“This whole process is not just a question of ticking things off a checklist or changing the rules, and I expect that ministers in the United Kingdom will want to see genuine commitment at every level and in every branch of government to implementation,” he said.
The governor added that a “genuinely effective” framework is needed to ensure the integrity of House of Assembly members, public officials and members of statutory boards.
Other priorities, he said, include passing whistleblower legislation and setting up a “fit-for-purpose” system for vetting customs, immigration, police and prison officers.
The premier said recent discussions on the reforms have been “intense.”
“The work we have done thus far is no small feat,” he said. “We have managed to sail the leaking ship whilst we have made the repairs to the leak.”
Order in council
Though the two leaders mostly presented a united front during the press conference, the premier again hit out at the order in council that would allow the UK to impose direct rule if the reforms aren’t completed.
Dr. Wheatley called the order — which was put in place shortly after the COI report was published in April 2022 — a “colonial coercive tool.”
This morning, Mr. Pruce refused to say if he agreed with Dr. Wheatley’s characterisation, noting that the OT minister will decide when to lift the order in council.
He also confirmed that he retains the option of asking London for extra powers to push through the COI reforms if needed.
When Mr. Pruce’s predecessor as governor, John Rankin, first floated the idea of seeking extra powers from London in January, the premier branded such a move a “power grab.”
