"The light that comes from wisdom never goes out"
After BVI Airports Authority Managing Director Clive Smith testified before the Commission of Inquiry for a little over an hour on Monday, COI Commissioner Sir Gary Hickinbottom ended the hearing …
Continue reading “Commissioner of Inquiry asks airport boss to resubmit his affidavit”
The Commission of Inquiry called House of Assembly Clerk Phyllis Evans to testify on July 14, asking her why incomplete applications for pandemic aid were accepted, how ministers decide who …
Continue reading “Clerk: HOA was ‘overwhelmed’ with Covid applications”
To investigate claims of overspending, potential conflicts of interest, and a lack of oversight on the unfinished Sea Cows Bay Harbour Development Project, the Commission of Inquiry called opposition member …
After securing a six-month extension to submit the Commission of Inquiry’s report to Governor John Rankin, Commissioner Sir Gary Hickinbottom announced on July 14 that his team would pause the …
Wendell Gaskin, a former deputy financial secretary who represented the Finance Ministry on the BVI Ports Authority Board during the time of the troubled cruise pier project said that until …
Continue reading “Ex-auditor grilled about claims he thwarted auditor”
The Commission of Inquiry held a directions hearing on July 8 to address what Commissioner Sir Gary Hickinbottom called the “disorganised and unhelpful” disclosure of documents from the government’s Inquiry …
Continue reading “IRU, COI square off on ‘disorganised’ evidence”
The territory’s procurement rules are “lacking” in areas like accountability and transparency, but the government is working on legislative reform designed to tackle this problem, Ministry of Finance Projects Director …
Heads of government from the Caribbean Community said last week that the organisation continues to support the Virgin Islands government as the United Kingdom-led independent Commission of Inquiry into possible …
The Commission of Inquiry questioned former Premier Dr. Orlando Smith last week about belongerships that Cabinet allegedly awarded improperly just before the start of his 2011- 2019 tenure as premier. …
Continue reading “COI interrogates former premier on belongership”
Several residents who applied for government assistance during the pandemic received multiple grants from different stimulus initiatives, with one person receiving $29,000 in stimulus funding on top of a $20,000 …
Continue reading “Auditor slams ‘abusive’ stimulus distribution”
Acting Financial Secretary Jeremiah Frett and his predecessor Glenroy Forbes were questioned on Tuesday by the Commission of Inquiry about a topic they know well: money and how it was …
Continue reading “Financial secretaries help track the money”
In 2015, the Internal Audit Department discovered that someone had presented receipts for cash payments of almost $265,000 to the Customs Department for importing fuel at Port Purcell, but this …
The Customs Department’s more-than-40-year-old Partial Payments Programme resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue between 1996 and 2019, the public learned when the Commission of Inquiry questioned …
Continue reading ““Partial payments” perk has cost the Customs Department more than $490,000″
The documents that Speaker of the House Julian Willock provided to reporters on June 30 did not vindicate him from breaching the Register of Interests Act as he claimed, Commissioner …
Continue reading “Commissioner: Willock documents are no defence”
Former Minister of Communications and Works Mark Vanterpool last week denied that he “commandeered” the cruise pier project from the BVI Ports Authority or demonstrated “impropriety” in hiring his political …
In examining the work of the Complaints Commissioner’s Office during a hearing focused largely on budgetary issues and the hurricane recovery, the Commission of Inquiry questioned current and former Complaints …
Continue reading “Complaints Commission sees sharp drop in reports”
The Commission of Inquiry called former Education and Culture Minister Myron Walwyn for a hearing on July 1 concerning an unfinished project to build a perimeter wall around Elmore Stoutt …
Although the Virgin Islands has in place measures to help ensure good governance, Governor John Rankin said they depend on officials having “full respect” for them — and during his …
The Premier’s Office “deliberately resisted” providing information on “excessive amounts” spent on the Covid-19 farming and fishing stimulus despite numerous requests from Auditor General Sonia Webster, she told the Commission …
Continue reading “Auditor general blasts farmer, fisher grants”
In a 33-page position statement to the Commission of Inquiry, Premier Andrew Fahie and his six ministers called for a “true partnership” between the Virgin Islands and the United Kingdom, …
Continue reading “Ministers claim to ‘distrust’ United Kingdom”
Former Premier Dr. Orlando Smith told the Commission of Inquiry on Tuesday that he didn’t instruct his financial secretary to “show me the evidence” that the BVI Airways deal was …
In recent days, the Commission of Inquiry has shone a glaring spotlight on the long-standing need to reform the system through which legislators declare their interests, a task that leaders …
Continue reading “EDITORIAL: The Register of Interests is broken. No surprise there”
Concluding hearings for the first of six major topics it plans to investigate this summer, the Commission of Inquiry called legislators from the present and past to answer for their …
Continue reading “Legislators’ interests declared late, or not at all”
Besides questioning current members of the House of Assembly over the past week, the Commission of Inquiry also called former members as it sought information about elected officials’ interests. Like …
A lawyer representing seven House of Assembly members in the Commission of Inquiry lobbed several written complaints last week about the commission and its conduct, tackling topics ranging from the …
