"The light that comes from wisdom never goes out"
For decades, successive governors and other United Kingdom leaders have pressured the Virgin Islands government to be more transparent. They are right to do so. But the UK must also …
Continue reading “EDITORIAL: UK minister missed the mark on transparency”
The process to recruit a new police commissioner has been temporarily suspended as the territory faces increasingly complex security challenges, Governor Daniel Pruce has announced. The effort to replace Mark …
Continue reading “Top cop search on hold as job ‘redefined’”
United Kingdom Overseas Territories Minister Stephen Doughty visited the Virgin Islands this week to assess the recent Commission of Inquiry reforms and meet with leaders eager to convince him that …
Continue reading “OT minister visits, avoiding press and public meetings”
On Tuesday morning, several residents waited patiently in the BVI Diabetes Resource Centre in Road Town for a free screening to determine if they are at risk for an eye …
Continue reading “Free eye tests offered for Diabetes Month”
The government tendered fewer than half of the major contracts it awarded between 2019 and 2022, and it often passed over the lowest offer for the rest, according to a …
Continue reading “Audit blasts 2019-2022 contracting procedures”
After the House of Assembly passed the last of five bills to reform statutory bodies last Thursday, Premier Dr. Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley boasted this week that his government has completed …
Thirty-six people were recently registered as British citizens after previously having been naturalised as British overseas territories citizens, government announced. During a ceremony held Aug. 27 at the Government House, …
We are disappointed that the government and the governor missed their Aug. 31 deadline to complete the Commission of Inquiry reforms, but the delay does not detract from the extensive …
Continue reading “EDITORIAL: COI reforms must be finished, then followed”
Two days before the missed Saturday deadline for completing the sweeping reforms recommended by the Commission of Inquiry, the House of Assembly suspended its usual rules to introduce 12 bills. …
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, …
Continue reading “COI reform deadline missed again, but new target set for next week”
Like many residents, we are dumbfounded. We cannot even begin to understand how the government’s laudable attempt to update all public officers’ salaries to a “living wage” misfired so badly …
Continue reading “EDITORIAL: Public needs answers on giant salary mistake”
Struggling residents will have new ways to get help under a law that received assent from Governor Daniel Pruce on Aug. 22, government announced. An amendment to the Public Assistance …
Shortly after 10 p.m. on Tuesday, the House of Assembly returned from closed-door committee and passed an amended version of a bill proposed by Governor Daniel Pruce to modernise the …
On Tuesday in the House of Assembly, two legislators used the word “dictatorship” to decry a bill that Governor Daniel Pruce is proposing to modernise the Commission of Inquiry Act …
Continue reading “Guv’s inquiry bill sparks cries of ‘dictatorship’”
Fifty-two people became British citizens during a June 20 ceremony at Government House, where they received congratulations from Governor Daniel Pruce and Registrar General Tashi O’Flaherty-Maduro. “Today you have taken …
Residents may be forgiven for feeling numb on the release of yet another scathing report about governance failings in the Virgin Islands. The 2022 Commission of Inquiry, the conviction of …
Continue reading “EDITORIAL: After scathing security review, UK and VI leaders must step up”
May 31 marked the expiration of the original two-year deadline to implement the 48 agreed governance reforms recommended by the 2022 Commission of Inquiry report. With Governor Daniel Pruce now …
Continue reading “EDITORIAL: New COI reform target must be met”
The deadline for delivering the delayed Commission of Inquiry reforms has been pushed to the end of August as Governor Daniel Pruce hailed a new understanding with Premier Dr. Natalio …
Calls for a freedom of information law in the territory are of “great interest” to Governor Daniel Pruce, but the matter has not been “live” during his time in his …
In keeping with a recent recommendation from the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force, the Virgin Islands government is establishing a dedicated unit to handle sanctions like the ones that have …
On a sunny Monday morning in Cappoons Bay, Virgin Islands leaders and other residents gathered to remember the territory’s first chief minister on the annual public holiday marking his birthday. …
Continue reading “Stoutt remembered as ‘father of progress’”
Nearly half an hour late to the press conference he called on Friday morning, Premier Dr. Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley stepped into the multimedia room on the first floor of his …
Continue reading “After Rutley visit, premier ‘confident’ on reforms”
Last month, outgoing governor John Rankin wrote to United Kingdom Overseas Territories Minister David Rutley to request additional powers to help his successor push through delayed Commission of Inquiry reforms. …
The new governor of the Virgin Islands was sworn in to office Monday after arriving in the territory three days earlier. Upstairs in the House of Assembly building, Daniel Pruce …
