Did you notice this week? Hillary Clinton says one should have a public and a private position on events. We also now hear that our governor has been practising that same philosophy. I feel he would have gained more respect if his position on various aspects of government had been more open.
Hooray! Coincidence or not, the Sea Cows Bay road has been virtually completed since the Third District public meeting. Government must have found some money to pay contractors. I wonder what else is going short this week?
Government can’t, or won’t, pay outstanding bills.
Water spat
Government is having to pay for water from the Paraquita Bay plant that it can’t store or distribute. After signing that no-tender contract with Biwater in 2010, the Virgin Islands Party government had two years to upgrade the distribution system before the plant came on stream, but failed to do so. Now they are blaming the present government, with some justification, because they are protecting their own interests in the other water plants. I don’t see this situation improving even if the government changes at the next election.
College fees
Other issues are troubling as well:
• Students can’t pay their tuition fees, and government gives them an amnesty instead of demanding payment. Where is the sense in that?
• A charter boat company refuses to pay its rent due to a spat with Prospect Reef — an establishment whose finances are very much in question and whose future is uncertain.
• A man steals $25 from his employer, a charity, at 4 a.m. “to buy a drink.”
• Employers are allegedly sacking staff and cutting hours due to the minimum wage increase.
• The Pier Park is not getting its projected rental revenue.
• Private health facilities have increased their fees since the introduction of National Health Insurance, thus putting extra strain on the scheme’s finances. It won’t be long before contributions have to increase, and employers and employees will be squeezed further.
Leaked letter
It would seem that someone leaked a letter sent from the Financial Services Commission to the National Bank of the Virgin Islands, concerned about its loan book. It is not known how long ago the letter was sent, but government has assured the public that the matter was addressed and that, basically, the bank is sound.
Hopefully, this will be a relief to many depositors, including me, concerned for the safety of their funds. A lot of people invest with them because they have the best rates. But that means they must charge more for loans, and if borrowers can’t or won’t pay, the bank and its customers could be in trouble. Some time ago bank officials told us at a public presentation that they liked lending to government because “they always paid.” I wonder if they feel the same these days?
The sensible increases in alcohol, tobacco and hotel taxes, together with cruise ship head taxes, set against reduced income from company registrations, won’t go far in alleviating our financial situation.
We should all be worried about this.
Greenhouses
Meanwhile, the deputy premier, speaking in the House of Assembly in support of a loan to proceed with the greenhouses, said the following:
• One third is to be allocated as a research facility in conjunction with the college — there likely will be no vegetables there then.
• One third is to be allocated to “farmers” or “other people” to grow things, perhaps flowers and ornamental plants, so there may be no vegetables there either.
That leaves one third to be developed by somebody to make us self-sufficient in vegetables.
To work the greenhouses we need electricity and water. The BVI Electricity Corporation says it will soon be in a position to provide extra power — remember they have generators at the water plant because they did not have enough power to date. However, the minister is keen on solar power. The greenhouse roofs need replacing because of their age — this would have been needed now even if we had started using them at the beginning — so we might as well add solar panels to the roof to provide the power necessary for the ventilation fans, water pumps and so on. But surely that will require a much stronger roof support structure than at present, at additional expense, as well as the cost of the panels. Also, the idea of a greenhouse is to concentrate the sun’s rays into a protected area, but surely the panels will cut out the sunlight? Has this thing really been thought out properly?
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