Premier and Minister of Finance Honourable Andrew A. Fahie (R1) has speculated that the incomplete and unpublished Auditor General’s Report by Sonia M. Webster on the Virgin Islands Neighbourhood Partnership Project (VINPP) that was leaked to a local online news entity days before the general election in 2019 was meant to do harm to the Virgin Islands Party’s (VIP) image. Photo: GIS/File

The BVI News article on February 12, 2019 carried the headline: ‘Leaked AG report: Major questions about fruitless $500K spend in Fahie-led programme’. Photo: BVI News

Premier and Minister of Finance, Honourable Andrew A. Fahie (R1), right, on October 11, 2021, raised concerns, for the record, to CoI Commissioner Gary R. Hickinbottom that he was being made to answer to an unpublished and incomplete Auditor General Report that has once again 'popped up'. Photo: GIS/VINO/File

The controversial report, which was never published and is lacking balance as required by the Audit Act and the Virgin Islands Constitutional Order 2007, is now being used by the United Kingdom (UK)-sponsored Commission of Inquiry (CoI) as the main evidence to their inquiry into the project.

The AG report has alleged that the project, which ran from 2009-2010, did not produce results despite over half a million dollars being paid out by Government.

Premier Fahie has raised concerns, for the record, that he was being made to answer to an unpublished and incomplete report that has once again "popped up".

Leak was meant to influence election- Premier

The Premier told the Commission on October 11, 2021, that the first time he saw information about the report was in the BVI Beacon Newspaper in 2012. "And I remember from the Beacon Newspaper they said it was something in the Auditor [General’s] Report that they got a wind of that was done in 2011, in late 2011."

The second ‘leak’ was done days before the 2019 general election when BVI News Online published information from the incomplete report on February 12, 2019. The general election was due on February 25, 2019; however, the VIP would go on to win the election by a landslide.

“Then there was a leak in 2019, couple days before election, stating about things about the same programme that were not placed in a good light and if you asked me it was done in such a way that it could have influenced the election and nobody came out and said let me bring out this report public and allow due process.”

The BVI News article carried the headline: ‘Leaked AG report: Major questions about fruitless $500K spend in Fahie-led programme’.

According to the article, there were expenses which the Auditor General described as “questionable” and were listed in the report.

BVI News also said when contacted about the 17-page document the Auditor General Sonia M. Webster said ‘the report BVI News described to her was drafted several years ago and was not done for public consumption. She declined to comment further.’

Leak could have only come from 3 sources- Hon Fahie

According to Honourable Fahie, he finds it strange that a report never went through the proper channels as set up by law, was never published, but somehow tends to pop up at certain times.

“This is what alarms me about it. My research has not shown where this report has been made public so it is either the leak had to come from somewhere that the newspapers got their leak over the years. I was in the Opposition for a very long time, a very long time and I have never seen this report come forward to the Public Accounts Committee to be deliberated.”

Honourable Fahie told the Commissioner that some of the reasons he had to flag the report were because of its lack of due process for the persons being accused and how it has been handled based on the Audit Act and the VI Constitution.

The Premier said the leak could only have been happening from three sources.

“If these leaks were happening, then it would have either been the Auditor General, the Governor or the Minister were leaking it and it was never made public.”

The Governor of the Virgin Islands at the time was the controversial Augustus J. U. Jaspert who called the CoI on the Virgin Islands. The Minister who would have received the draft report, if any was issued to him, would have been the former Minister for Education, Myron V. Walwyn.

Report ‘mysteriously pops’ up for coI

According to Honourable Fahie, the Virgin Islands Neighbourhood Partnership Project would have been introduced in 2008 and 13 years later the report has mysteriously popped up “and we must now come and answer [to the CoI] when I don’t have any records from the Ministry to verify” what is in the report.

Hickinbottom responded that the Consultant for the project was given an opportunity to make his input in the report but he “did not cooperate with the Auditor General at all”.

The Premier had said he could not speak for the consultant and maintained that as is customary with an AG report, the subject document was lacking draft notes, names of persons interviewed, and a response from the Ministry.