Premier Dr. Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley has refused to name the businesses and individuals hired for festival celebrations in 2022 and 2023, leading opposition member Marlon Penn to compare him to a “dictator.”
The heated exchange came during a May 2 House of Assembly meeting, when Mr. Penn asked for an account, including names and descriptions, of all the transactions for festival activities during the two years.
Though the premier agreed to provide the unaudited 2022 and 2023 reports with general information about spending, he said the names would be redacted.
In explaining his refusal, Dr. Wheatley cited section 18.6 of the Standing Orders of the HOA, which states that a minister “may decline to answer a question if the publication of the answer would in his opinion be contrary to the public interest.”
“I cannot in good conscience participate in something I’ve been seeing happen since I’ve come to this House, especially with the Commission of Inquiry, where persons’ identities who have done transactions with government — whether it’s they get scholarships, whether it’s they get grants — and all of these different types of transactions are placed into the public sphere, and persons are targeted and ridiculed,” Dr. Wheatley said.
Speaker of the House Corine George-Massicote disagreed with the premier’s decision.
“Premier, I understand the point you have raised. However, my view is I do not see how it’s not in the public interest to disclose the information that is being requested,” Ms. GeorgeMassicote said. “That is my view. I think it’s a reasonable request.”
Despite the speaker’s opinion on the matter, the premier stood his ground.
Ms. George-Massicote responded, “I can’t force the premier to answer the question, but I have placed my ruling on record.”
Contracts?
The speaker also asked the premier, “In relation to the names or the businesses, were those done by a contract that had to be registered?”
The premier responded that some were done by contract and some were not.
Ms. George-Massicote noted that the “ones that would have been done by contract are public.”
But Dr. Wheatley said the redacted documents he was passing to the opposition made no distinction between payments made through contracts and payments made without contracts.
“They would have to go back and do that work [to make the distinction],” he said. “We can do that if that is the desire. But there’s also, you know, a means of accessing that information. If that information is public, the Standing Orders tell you you don’t have to bring information that’s already public.”
‘Dictator’
Mr. Penn (R-D8) harshly criticised the premier’s decision to redact the names of businesses and other vendors.
“We cannot set a precedent in this House where any premier could dictate what can or cannot be said or what’s in the public interest, especially when dealing with public funds,” Mr. Penn said. “It’s a troubling situation, Madam Speaker, when the minister of finance is taking this type of position. It makes me wonder what else is being hidden from the public.”
Mr. Penn then pushed harder.
“Might as well we just end the process, Madam Speaker, because if we have a dictator that is running the country in dictating what he answers or don’t answer, what’s the sense of us asking questions?” he added.
Unclear accounts
Dr. Wheatley also noted that the redacted documents he provided were not audited.
“As such, reconciliation of numbers and information provided remains an outstanding legal requirement before this information can be formally placed before the legislature as the final accounts from the VI Festivals and Fairs Committee presented to the government,” he said.
On Friday, Government Information Officer Sonjé Greenidge provided the Beacon with a copy of the festival documentation she said the premier had passed to the opposition.
However, the documents provide only a vague and cursory explanation of much of the festival spending.
In many cases, for instance, the documents do not clearly explain each transaction’s amount, purpose or date.
Some expenditure categories carry general headings such as “Virgin Gorda,” “parade” or “general expenses.”
Ms. Greenidge had not responded to the Beacon’s query for clarity as of press time.
Other questions arose from a copy of the premier’s HOA answers that Mr. Penn said he received from the HOA.
In that document, the total 2022 expenditure and income does not match the total in the documents provided by Ms. Greenidge.