The tendency of successive governments to abandon plans made by previous administrations continues to waste taxpayers’ money and to cause unnecessary delays in badly needed projects.

 

The latest example was revealed this month when Premier Dr. Orlando Smith announced that government had breached agreements with Global Water, a company hired in 2006 to build and operate a wastewater treatment plant in Paraquita Bay.

Now the matter has gone into arbitration, and Global Water has claimed that government owes it more than $22 million.

Meanwhile, there is no treatment plant, and the people of the Virgin Islands probably stand to gain little, if anything, from the taxpayer money that the government could have to shell out.

It is difficult to imagine that politics were not at work here at some level. The 2006 contracts were signed by Dr. Smith’s previous National Democratic Party-led administration, and the bulk of the neglect leading to the breaches allegedly occurred under the Virgin Islands Party-led administration that took over in 2007.

But it would be wrong to point fingers at any one party: On the contrary, the latest breaches are part of a pattern that has become commonplace with public projects large and small.

Instead of working with predecessors’ plans, new administrations have too often scrapped them completely in favour of entirely new ideas of their own — frequently in spite of excessive write-offs or large penalties that must come from taxpayers’ pockets.

Besides the financial cost, this practice has contributed to serious delays with several major capital projects, including the new hospital, water-and-sewerage works, the cruise ship pier, a new high school, and the senior home, among others.

Of course, any government will have its own policy goals. This is natural. But when considering the extent of the reversals that often come with a change in government, one is forced to wonder whether political gamesmanship is at times supplanting genuine concern about the good of the territory.

Systemic change is needed. Even a modest productivity over the long-term hinges on continuity between governments.

Moving forward, then, we urge the political parties to collaborate more closely at all times. Currently, partisanship in the House of Assembly often leads to knee-jerk disagreement that scuttles any chance at productive teamwork.

Instead, the sitting government should work with the opposition to iron out long-term strategies for a way forward that are palatable to both sides of the aisle. Then when a new party comes into power, it is more likely to stay on a consistent path.

If legislators struggle with this mandate, the public should demand better. Too much is at stake for major public projects to start and stop every four years.

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