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Deputy Premier blasts AG's Chambers for delaying business grants programme
Hon Smith was speaking during the continuation of the Sixteenth Sitting of the First Session of the Fifth House of Assembly on Tuesday, July 30, 2024.
$100,000.00 budgeted for grant
In the last budget, $100,000.00 was approved for the 2024 grant programme, initially for existing businesses owned by VI nationals, as a means of trying to stabilise critical sectors.
Eligibility, Hon Smith explained, is easy with a simple application process that allows for those approved to receive grants in the amount of $1000.00 to $7000.00 for various purposes.
Approvals delayed by almost 3 months
"This grant has been around from January, in fact, November, when the budget was passed. I kept getting asked when would I be available and and I have a date of April [2024]. I was asked again and I probably gave the date of May...so it became so bad that I became for this and other things where I gave dates a person who never delivers, talk, talk is cheap ," Hon Smith said.
The process followed for approval from the government under the Mirco, Small and Medium Sized Grants Programme begins with the Ministry of Finance before being forwarded to the Attorney General's Chambers which is where the delay occurred.
"That matter stayed in the Attorney General's Office for three months," she added.
Private sector cannot wait though there's a challenge with resources- Hon Smith
In 2023, Attorney General Hon Dawn J Smith revealed to the HoA that the Attorney General's Chambers has been short-staffed since taking up office in 2020 with 21 of the 42 positions filled, while appearing before the 2023 Standing Finance Committee (SFC) of the HoA for the 2024 budget.
In three years, she said, her staff grew from 21 to 37, an addition of 16 staff members, but 5 staff short of the 42 positions in her office.
The Deputy Premier acknowledged that the documentation may not have been left unattended intentionally as it is a known fact that there are challenges in terms of resources; however, the private sector cannot wait.
"I wish that we or that public servants understood that their salaries are guaranteed but the private sector business community, theirs is not," she explained.
While Hon Smith admitted there are dedicated public servants who work round the clock to get their work done, more must be done to move with "greater purpose and alacrity" in the public service.
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8 Responses to “Deputy Premier blasts AG's Chambers for delaying business grants programme”
Please name and praise these hard-working industrious unsung heroes in the public service that are "working round the clock".
They certainly deserve the recognition.
It is a waste of public funds to prop up failing enterprises, especially when so many things need doing that can only be done by government: roads, schools, water, sewer, electricity, etc.
How do you think they out compete in the international market? They are funded by their government. In some countries government promises to by products such as produce or weapons at a set price to assure a market.
we have this idea that we need to be dog eat dog and every man free for all. That is not how the village worked.
Also the civilized world does not work that way, stop trying to project as if the USA & UK or the whole of Europe just leave their people to fend for themselves without assistance. They are spoon fed compared to us yet some think we want too much for free.
BVI government never gives out research grants, for starters.
The farmers only got it once!! by a miracle paradox good politician bad politician robin hood called Andrew. Farmers in the USA get grants yearly so stop the foolish crab in a bucket crap. Just because you had it hard doesnt mean you need to make it harder for others! Life is meant to get easier generation by generation.
We all know a professor or two who never give A+ and give people a hard time for the sake of it because they think the world is harsh, news flash you are the world.