Dep. Premier remains in conflict of interest – Commentator
“As far as I am aware, any investments that I have with respect to the BVI Investment Club have been put in a Trust or under some other person’s name or whatever legal advice I was given to ensure that I was not involved in any way to create any conflict of interest,” the Deputy Premier stated in the HOA last Friday.
The commentator said he did not feel that taking one’s name off of the investment club and placing it in a trust equated to the avoidance of a conflict of interest.
According to Sowande, elected representatives have a lot of power to influence those to whom contracts are awarded. He also added that situations where any elected representative stood to benefit from contracts were representative of a conflict of interest and were prone to abuse since they could lead to elected representatives taking actions that are directly in their own personal interest as opposed to that of the public.
The commentator spoke about the necessary level of sacrifice required in becoming an elected representative and also said such persons should be willing to divest any shares in companies that do business with the government.
“When people enter public life that should be one thing that they consider, that they [elected officials] must at the least forego the potential for personal individual wealth in favour of service to the community,” he said.
Regarding the issue of the Register of Interests which concerns the financial dealings of elected officials, Sowande believes that steps can be taken to make the Register public whilst still keeping the privacy of legislators in place simultaneously. In doing so, he said, this will lead to a greater appearance of transparency. “Generally, I favour transparency as it pertains to the financial interests of elected representatives,” the commentator stated.
Sowande argued that it was also not enough for legislators to simply be transparent in taking steps to avoid legal actions regarding conflict of interest issues, but they also need to be cognisant of the fact that there are ethical issues involved as well.
Archibald C. Christian should press for public Register of Interests
He felt that At-Large Representative, Hon. Archibald C. Christian’s comments on a recent broadcast of the NDP radio programme stating that the public can access the Register if they needed to, was an unfortunate bit of misinformation despite statements made previously in the House which reflect the opposite.
“[Hon. Christian] should push for the register being public,” Sowande stated, “He assumed it was so because it makes sense… I would encourage him to advocate for it being [made] public.”
While arguing that the Territory has not had the most accountability and the best governance over the past few decades, he stated that going forward it was important that this type of behaviour [lack of accountability] be cleaned up.
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23 Responses to “Dep. Premier remains in conflict of interest – Commentator”
You are still a part of this investment. Imagione if I say to you I am not going to think of you anymore!! even not thinking of you is still thinking of you philosophically. Get real. after the politics you will collect wont you??