Green house project to be audited, says PS Smith-Berkeley
This is according to the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary Ronald Smith-Berkeley when he appeared before members of the 2012 Standing Finance Committee (SFC). He was responding to 3rd District Representative Hon. Julian Fraser’s query as to the status of the project, which many now call a white elephant.
Hon. Fraser also stated that the Ministry needed “to know what they are going to do with those things, next thing you know it become prohibitive to go near to it”.
However, PS Smith-Berkeley disclosed that moving forward, the Ministry needed to have a better understanding of what happened and “where we are financially”.
The audit will cover both Tortola and Virgin Gorda projects.
The project was a brainchild of former Minister for Natural Resources and Labour, Omar Hodge and faced stiff opposition from farmers and several concerned residents, who were of the view that the project would affect the livelihood of farmers.
However, in an interview with Hodge in late 2010, he had pointed out that the Territory’s import bill for food was extremely high and stated that with mass production of several cash crops grown in the VI, fresher produce will be available to the community.
But on August 9, 2011, the then Minister informed this news agency that the greenhouses would not become operational that year because the project was awaiting the arrival and installation of a water tank that was being sourced in Miami but could not give a time line and had said, “It will take some time as money for that project is small”.
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