Details of corruption, breaking of laws & 1 man show confirmed!-Final PAC Report
A copy of the final report was obtained by this news site’s traditional sources within the ruling National Democratic Party.
The report is to be laid on the table of the HoA on Friday June 13, 2014 according to the Order Paper dispatched to the media houses yesterday. The final report, an over 100 page document of evidence, information and testimony backs up all the PAC’s claims in compelling details of corruption, usurpation of the role of the BVI Ports Authority, absence of transparency, withholding of information from the Committee, along with questionable payments of Ports funds.
Gregory W. Adams & Arlene Smith-Thompson shut out!!!
Many would remember before the 2011 general elections the then Virgin Islands Party (VIP) Government of Honourable Ralph T. O’Neal OBE, signed a $12 Million Cruise Ship expansion Heads of Terms with Disney.
However, after the election of November 2011 the subject of the Ports was removed from the Ministry of Finance to the Ministry of Communications and Works with Honourable Mark H. Vanterpool as Minister.
In his testimony before the PAC on January 15, 2014, the former Chairman of the Board Mr. Gregory W. Adams confirmed that the VIP project with Disney was transparent and it had been negotiated by the Board which led to the BVI Ports Board signing the Head of Terms.
According to many who would have been in charge at the time and who testified before the Public Accounts Committee, under the VIP Project the BVI Ports Board was allowed full involvement and participation in the project and it was controlled by the Authority.
The former Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Communications and Works Mrs. Arlene Smith-Thompson advised the PAC on January 29, 2014 that if there was a conscious decision to change the scope of the project it was a verbal one by the Minister for Communications and Works Honourable Mark H. Vanterpool.
She said the Minister advised her that he was not speaking alone, but it was a collective decision. However Mrs. Thompson-Smith confirmed that she had not seen any Cabinet Paper or Cabinet Decision representing a collective decision of that body to change the scope of the project signed by the previous VIP Administration.
Furthermore, the former Chairman Mr. Adams told the PAC that he had not been presented with anything that said the original project with Disney had been revoked. He said, if any decision was made it would have come from the Ministry of Communications and Works and not the Board.
This is a blatant violation of the Ports Act and the Board’s responsibility. Examination by the PAC of the BVI Ports Authority Board minutes for the period November 2011 to January 2012 show no Board decision to change the scope of the project for a pier expansion and Welcome Centre to a large scale, long term development increasing the cost to $75Million.
The BVI Ports former Managing Director Vincent V. O’Neal also confirmed in his testimony before the HoA Select Committee that he was never consulted about the new project and his input on the proposed new plans was never sought.
Both O’Neal and Adams told the PAC that they learned about the new project from media reports. The House Committee on the Territory’s Public Accounts Chaired by Leader of the Opposition Honourable Ralph T. O’Neal OBE concluded that the new Ports Project was commandeered by the Minister for Communications and Works and the scope changed between November 2011 and January 2012 without consultation with the BVI Ports Authority’s Board and without a prior Cabinet Decision.
Conflicting information between Ag. PS and Claude O. Skelton-Cline
According to the report the former Ports Consultant Mr. Claude O. Skelton-Cline told the Committee that he believed the companies who bid on the project were solicited for the development through an electronic bid-by-invitation process issued by the Ministry of Communications and Works.
However, the Ministry's Ag. PS at the time Smith-Thompson told the Public Accounts Committee that was not the case as her Ministry “did not send out any solicitations for bids”. She advised that the Minister and former Consultant were the ones “actively involved in this process” and that her efforts to guide the Minister and former Consultant on the processes were “largely disregarded”.
Ports Board was ignored in violation of the laws
The PAC noted the frustration of the many Ports members testifying before the Committee. In giving evidence one member of the Board referred to the process as “disrespectful”, another stated that the Board’s functions were being “minimised’ and yet another referred to the Board as becoming a “fifth wheel”.
More to come!
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33 Responses to “Details of corruption, breaking of laws & 1 man show confirmed!-Final PAC Report”
My..n go sit down and refund tax payers
This corruption did not just start. It has been going on unchecked for many years. There is no accountability for the Crown or the Peoples money. No politician, no Minister should be able to have access to or to spend, or even to give away Government monies as freely as they appear to be able to. Unless they are stopped they will go unstoppable and acting as if they are Lords. Who will have the courage to stop this type of behavior and hold every politician that behaves badly accountable? Look at our US Virgin Islands neighbors, they are going to jail and paying the price for participating in corruption. The same should happen here if it is proven that these acts were committed. Let us stop the stupid NDP vs VIP nonsense and put the blame where ever it belongs.
We did not have this corruption when we had the Legislative Council. Progress to a Ministerial
Government seems to have ruined everything for the peoples of the BVI. What we have all failed to understand is that we will be held accountable one day, foe the Creator who created us and gives knowledge, does he not know. He gave us sight does He not see, He allows us to hear, does He not hear and know our thoughts before we act.