Premier Smith ignores Opposition Leader’s call for CDB loan breakdown
The call was made while the Chairman of the Virgin Islands Party was delivering his Annual District Report on Sunday January 21, 2018 at Capoon’s Bay. Hon Fahie had said, “I am calling on the Minister of Finance and I demand that within seven days he give a detailed breakdown of how the $65 million loan from CDB will be spent! How it will be monitored! And give us the names of each of the members on the Board who will be charged with monitoring the Fund.”
Silence from Dr Smith
A week has since passed and there has been no word from the Minister of Finance regarding the request of Hon Fahie.
In an invited comment on January 28, 2018 Honourable Fahie told our news room, “Let me make it abundantly clear that the information being sought from the Minister of Finance is on behalf of the people of the Virgin Islands. After all they are the ones who will be called upon to repay the $65 million loan from CDB. This loan repayment will stretch from the present generation into future generations.”
You would recall that the CDB announced the approval of a $65 million loan in December 2017 to aid in the recovery of the territory following the August 2017 floods and the September 2017 hurricanes.
The National Democratic Party (NDP) Government has always been criticised for its lack of transparency and accountability in handling the territory’s finances. This Hon Fahie says has to change adding that, “The journey ahead calls for business as usual to be discontinued and accountability and transparency to be the order of the day.”
What now?
As the rest of the territory awaits the requested information, many are wondering what happens now. To this Hon Fahie said, “In this light, we await the detailed explanation to be given to the people as requested of the Minister of Finance as it pertains to the loan funds in question. Failure to do so will only open the door for further actions to be taken in the near future in the pursuit of providing the information for the public.”
To that end the Opposition Leader concluded by saying, “Of course we all know that as usual the government will try to throw some kind of smoke screen to shift the focus off of their not being accountable for the loan funds in question but they will soon find out that those are washed out games that will last shorter than butter will last against the sun. The new day of accountability, transparency and good governance is dawning and they must face this new morning.”
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