Hon Walwyn calling the Premier 'a liar' a serious admin error – Edmund G. Maduro
Maduro was speaking on his radio show The EGM Show last night February 25, 2016 on ZROD 103.7 FM.
His comments were in reference to Honourable Walwyn publicly declaring that Premier Dr The Honourable D. Orlando Smith had misled the public with regards to the cost for building a wall/fence around the Elmore Stoutt High School.
Maduro called it a very serious administrative error.
“If you were called a liar by a Minister of yours, would you continue to work with him?” he asked.
According to Maduro, the Minister said he was supplied erroneous information by the Premier more than once.
“Anyone is subject to making mistake... It is my view that in fact if I were the Minister for Education and my Premier had made a mistake like that, it would have been my responsibility to address the Honourable Premier in the House of Assembly not to come out and go behind his back and put the situation in the media,” he said.
“As far as I am concerned it is a serious breach of protocol and a serious breach of manners and if I were the Premier I would not overlook it,” he said.
Maduro said that if the Premier had been asked a question by the Opposition and the relevant department supplied answers that were incomplete then he would expect the Premier to send back for a review of the information supplied with a view to correcting same.
“But for me as the Minister for Education to go out and call my Premier a liar in the public is a very serious administrative error so I am waiting to see what will happen,” he said.
Hon Walwyn blames wrong information given by Premier Smith on his $1M ‘Wall’
It was first and accurately reported by our newsroom that the controversial Minister for Education and Culture, Honourable Myron V. Walwyn, spent well over One Million and Seventy-eight Thousand Dollars ($1,078,000.00) on a wall at the Elmore Stoutt High School (ESHS) in 2015. Many teachers and parents after hearing this were disgusted and outraged, especially since the National Democratic Party (NDP) Administration has left the country broke and public schools cannot get basic items
However, to justify this reckless spending on a wall, the Minister told a radio station that the Premier provided inaccurate information to the Public via the House of Assembly (HoA) as his Ministry’s records show a different figure for the ESHS wall- costing only “nine hundred and fourteen thousand dollars.”
Mr Walwyn, the second term Minister for Education and Culture, told the local radio station that the over million figure provided by the Minister of Finance was for other works done beside the wall and even works on Virgin Gorda.
The Minister therefore contradicted the Minister of Finance’s figures when Premier Smith responded to a question posed by Senior Opposition Member Honourable Andrew A. Fahie (R1) in the HoA to Premier Smith on spending via advance warrant not approved by Parliament.
The Minister also claimed that he built the costly wall as the previous Virgin Islands Party (VIP) Administration could not get it done. Minister Walwyn claimed that the objective of the costly wall was for the safety of students and teachers, as the previous fence was “porous” allowing for knives and drugs to get onto the school compound.
30 Responses to “Hon Walwyn calling the Premier 'a liar' a serious admin error – Edmund G. Maduro”
Mayson is that boy trying to make the leader look bad so that he could be the new leader when the time comes?
What made me SMH and LOL is when Myrun said on ZBVI the wall was built to protest teachers and students safety when in fact it was probably just an election gimmick to give jobs to his friends ie buying votes!!!!!.
The wall has many low spots where kids can jump over the wall, many of the places still have the old fence and others are not even complete. Bossie no one goes to jail in the BVI so you can do and say anything and get away with it.
Myron I voted for you and you have disgraced your office and made me regret my vote
The Premier was not the leading vote getter in the last election but instead of what others may think he is still the Premier and must lead and lead effectively. He has an 11-2 majority so there should not be any concern about people bolting to the other party. Premier take hold of the reins of government. You are playing withfire and getting burn; you got to feel the bern. The misstatements, cost over runs on projects, questionable expenditure, the tone deafness, fear among civil servants, poor morale in the service, the lag ,not lead on issues (LDB closure); autocratic tendencies, .....etc are issues that need urgent attention.