In what legislators said would be a step backward, the Virgin Islands may be required to submit its annual budget to United Kingdom officials for approval.
Deputy Premier Dancia Penn first disclosed the news at her Oct. 10 campaign launch in Parham Town.
“One of the proposals is that we are going to have to send our draft budget to London every year two months before we can pass it in our House of Assembly here,” Ms. Penn said. Such approvals have not been required since the territory came out of its “grant-in-aid” stage in 1977, she said.
Negotiations regarding the proposal aren’t complete, Premier Ralph O’Neal said this weekend at another Virgin Islands Party event, adding that it does not apply only to the VI.
“It’s not us alone. It’s all the overseas territories,” Mr. O’Neal said Saturday at the launch of Third District representative Andrew Fahie.
National Democratic Party members have called the proposal a result of financial “mismanagement” by the present government.
“Our contention is that under the administration of the National Democratic Party government, this wouldn’t have happened,” said Opposition Leader Dr. Orlando Smith on the NDP’s Monday evening radio broadcast from Carrot Bay.
Dr. Smith, who was chief minister from 2003 to 2007, also contends that Mr. O’Neal is mistaken regarding the proposal being for all OTs.
See the Oct. 20, 2011 edition for full coverage.