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People tell me they want the CoI reforms ‘done & delivered’- Gov Pruce
The Governor, at the publishing of his first CoI Quarterly Review on May 24, 2024, shared plans to request a final extension of the deadline for the full implementation of reforms in the VI since it was 'clear' that the recommendations would not have been completed by May 2024.
He also opted not to lift the option of additional powers for the governor as well as chose to allow the controversial Order in Council to suspend the Virgin Islands Constitution to remain in place.
“People that I have met in my first few months here, who have given me a warm and much appreciated welcome, those people tell me they want the reforms of the CoI done and delivered.
“So we must sustain our shared collective effort to deliver the COI reforms for the benefit of the people of the Islands. We must sustain our commitment to give the people of the Islands, and future generations, what they deserve: a system of government that will serve them well. I consider it a privilege to work alongside the Government of the Virgin Islands in this shared mission,” Governor Pruce said.
Hickinbottom said the VI people ‘were badly served’- Gov Pruce
The United Kingdom-appointed governor began his statement on Friday by recalling Commissioner Sir Gary R. Hickinbottom’s conclusion in the COI report of April 4, 2022.
“He said, and I quote, ‘With limited exceptions, in terms of governance (that is, how government makes and implements decisions), the people of the BVI have been badly served in recent years’ end quote, Governor Pruce said.
He said since his arrival in January of this year, and building on the work of his predecessor, he and his team have been working intensively with Premier Dr the Hon Natalio D. Wheatley (R7) and all branches of the Government of the Virgin Islands “to address, and reverse, what Sir Gary Hickinbottom observed.”
During a time of tension between the VI Government and then Governor Augustus J. U. Jaspert over the latter’s overreaching into the public service and his alleged violation of the VI Constitution, a CoI was called by Jaspert, in collaboration with the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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21 Responses to “People tell me they want the CoI reforms ‘done & delivered’- Gov Pruce”
A Bill is going through at the moment that appears intended to concoct a scheme where the legal rights of the 2 or 3 thousand Immigration applicants will be denied. They have "done their time". They submitted applications. They have for 2+ further years been ignored. It appears they are going to now be processed as if their legal rights should be assessed under a new legal regime. The refusal on the local government's part to process applications should not be grounds for permitting the local government to step over their legal rights. The UK looks like going along with a scheme far from what the COI recommendations envisaged and the Framework Agreement contemplated.
A worrying feature of the proposed new scheme is the abundant vague discretionary criteria that are envisaged. There is no equivalent in Home Office rules concerning comparable applications in the UK. The criteria and committees (that probably will not function at all or so slowly as to amount to not functioning) are all designed to be a charter for the local government to carry on as it long has done. What about objective rules and the rule of law?
It has been 2+ years since the COI recommendations and no progress on processing applications has been made. Immigration curtly responds to enquiries to the effect that no decisions have been made. No further information is provided. No excuses made. No apologies offered. No suggestion is made that Immigration have a service standard that they are following. How can you permit this to go on in a territory that is supposed to be a British Overseas Territory upholding the rule of law? The above is in no way intended as a criticism of the personnel who work in Immigration. They, quite rightly, must take their orders from above.
The local government shall do as they please as much as they can get away with it. It is you Governor and the Government of the United Kingdom that you represent that I consider responsible for the law-breaking. It is an awful legacy for the UK, going along with such low standards when the rule of law and respect for human rights is what good governance demands. Not rewarding breaches of the rule of law by granting powers to ignore the legal rights denied to so many for so long, and a new charter to do so into the future.
It did spark my concern though.
You make us look bad supporting oppression of other people, when we were oppressed ourselves.
Your alcoholic police are out looking to smell smoke on us while hung over. We also want an apology for Slavery. That is over due.
There is some dummy there keeps attacking people when they speak of our past history of slavery but it is fact. & by locking people up for a scientifically sound & medicinal plant is a continuation of our colonization & oppression. Fact because it is not sciences that say cannabis is bad, but an outdated white supremist ideology that spread & forced upon all corners of the globe after 1970.
When Martin Luther King Jr died the torch passed to all of us. More rights, More freedom stop holding each other down, You go to church the Rasta go to church, you praise Jahova they praise Jah. Stop holding your own down.