NDP gov't full of deception – Hon. Fahie
The claims come in the wake of Premier Dr the Hon. D. Orlando Smith’s assertions in the House of Assembly that he had not seen the Auditor General’s report on the pier project despite issuing a comprehensive press release on the report a short while after it had reportedly surfaced.
“It’s hard to believe that he has not seen the Auditor General’s report on the pier project and as the Minister of Finance and the leader of the country, even if the Governor alleged that he ordered it, he [the Governor] would have discussed it with the Premier so I find it hard to conclude that the Premier hasn’t seen it,” Hon. Fahie told Virgin Islands News Online in an exclusive interview.
Premier Smith, in response to a question posed by Hon. Fahie in the House of Assembly on the issue of when the report would be laid in the House said, “the Member is saying that I am fully aware of the existence of the Auditor General’s Report, ….Madam Speaker, I have heard of this report floating around, I have not seen it, I am not sure I could find it, no one has sent it to me, so I know nothing about it!”
According to Hon. Fahie, all the facts are pointing in the direction that the Premier has seen the report which was authored by Auditor General Ms Sonia M. Webster.
“That is just an addition to many other areas that have come to light that the facts reveal that what the government is telling us and what actually [obtains] based on the research, are two different things,” he argued.
“…they are involved in perception management and public relations marketing to sell their story but what is actually [factual] is different from what they are saying,” Hon. Fahie claimed.
Hon. Fahie expressed that even though the Premier has claimed in the House of Assembly that he hasn’t seen the report, the release issued by the Premier has alluded to many things contained within the report. “That’s difficult to do if you didn’t see the report,” Hon. Fahie stated.
The veteran legislator noted that he does not ‘wish the government bad’ however, he believes that “the government is involved in a lot of deception in the way that they are bringing information.”
The First District Representative further argued that the issue was not one of opinion, but rather one that requires careful research.
Citing a further instance of inconsistency, Hon. Fahie noted that Premier Smith had suggested that works on the Queen Elizabeth Park had not started while noting that there was only some ‘warming up’.
However, Hon. Fahie claimed that everyone could see the trucks passing and the heavy equipment working so the project, in his opinion, had already started.
He added, contrary to campaign promises, the government continues to deliver late budgets despite promising to be financially responsible in delivering early budgets.
He also noted the constant ballooning of project costs with as much as four and five hundred percent increases in some instances such as the Georgie Hill road, Crafts Alive, and Hospital parking lot projects.
“You have [the government] doing projects where none of them are being tendered,” Hon. Fahie alleged, “and they campaigned saying that none of that would never happen.”
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35 Responses to “NDP gov't full of deception – Hon. Fahie”
You need to read the article, and you need to understand how Government works. The Premier did not commission the report on the pier project. And he did not issue a press release...that was done by the GIS.
“the Member is saying that I am fully aware of the existence of the Auditor General’s Report, ….Madam Speaker, I have heard of this report floating around, I have not seen it, I am not sure I could find it, no one has sent it to me, so I know nothing about it!”
You also need to understand what motivation is. Do you think a rational man would make such a statement in the house if it was not so? What would he gain by telling a lie (if it is a lie) like that? I agree that the Premier is the head and so he is ultimately accountable. But Andrew is out of order by implying that the Premier is lying.
Corruption = any project where you will not get any money and may make the opposite party look good to voters. GTFOH! How all of a sudden people know what corruption is? Show me the corruption and stop talking sh!t.
I don't have any angels, I don't give a s..t about VIP or NDP. All I know is that 99% of you blogging could give a damn about BVI. You only vex because your lifeline get cut off when VIP got voted out. All of them are the same thing which is why I stand where I stand. On the sideline watching the them fight and bicker for no reason.
George Hill jump from three hundred thousand to over one million dollars and look who the q...e character is as the project manager. This needs investigating right away.
Stop lying. The VIP never change any plans that the NDP left with the hospital. All that happen is the VIP was forced to change the contractor because the one the NDP signed with was proven over & over & over to be incompetent.
how about the contract with the current port director for the youth program?
Both NDP and VIP need voting out! lets form a new party name the peoples buniness.
They (politicians) seem to believe they are not answerable to the public. They are above such naive and pedestrian notions of accountability! Of course they are wrong, but they rely on the fact that some of us seem to have very short memories and our sense of right and wrong tends to get clouded by personal greed.
They are pretty much free to do as they please, (regardless of what may be right or wrong) because we don't demand better from them. A white envelop, a wink and a knowing smile is all that's necessary. The very sad thing is that everyone knows it and accepts it as part and parcel of our "culture". It really doesn't matter who is elected. It will never change as long as we continue to allow it.
It's a never ending cycle of finger pointing, political posturing and power mongering. The best we can hope for is that the country doesn't end up bankrupt, with only ourselves to blame for putting them in positions of power. Poor, poor we.
Since you remembering the airport project then you should accurately remember one of the companies who went jail for the project. Now years later the NDP still turn around & paid the same company for works done at the sane airport during those times & then lately resurrected the same company to project manage Georgie Hill project. All these actions are questionable & one wonders if some of the same regime wasn't more involved in the airport fiasco years ago than what we were lead to believe. Afterall they are now at it again trying to expand the airport. Talk that now.