During the Third Sitting of The Second Session of the Third House of Assembly of the Virgin Islands on Monday, December 19, Member of the Opposition Honourable Andrew Fahie cast aspersions about the public’s purse that was irresponsible.  He insinuated that we have not accounted for $2B of the public’s purse; this is a deliberate and gross distortion of the truth. 



These are the facts:

 

Each year, the Government of the Virgin Islands takes a budget to the House of Assembly which is considered and expressly approved by a majority of its members. The budget contains details of the projected revenue and each and every area of expenditure.

The Government collects approximately $300M per year, and spends it to provide services to the Territory, as agreed. This means that over the past five years approximately $1.5B has been approved for spending in areas expressly approved by the House of Assembly. 

Where any additional spending becomes necessary, supplementary appropriation is taken to the House of Assembly for approval. In fact, just yesterday a supplementary for 2015 was taken to the House of assembly, debated and it was subsequently approved.

On the matter of audited statements, as stated several times before, in fact since September 2016, while no audited statements of the Governments accounts have been submitted to the House of Assembly since 2006, these statements have been worked on, and those that are ready will be submitted at an upcoming sitting of the House of Assembly.

Let me reiterate. My Government is doing its part to bring regular quarterly financial reports to this Honourable House for examination and public viewing. 

We remain committed to transparency of the fiscal affairs of our Territory and its good governance.