PanaTimes

Friday, Jun 09, 2023

Why rush to audit stimulus? Premier suggests collusion

Why rush to audit stimulus? Premier suggests collusion

Premier Andrew Fahie has questioned the apparent ‘rush’ to execute an audit of his government’s COVID-19 stimulus grants, arguing that ulterior motives may have been afoot.

During his appearance before the Commission of Inquiry (COI) yesterday, October 12, the Premier insinuated that the Office of the Auditor General may have conspired with UK Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab.

Raab, who has portfolio responsibility for UK Overseas Territories, had publicly backed former governor Augustus Jaspert’s decision to launch the Inquiry.

The Premier said yesterday that the Auditor General’s report seemed to have been specially prepared for the COI since it was never presented to the Cabinet or the the House of Assembly, as was supposed to be procedurally done.

“What was the rush with the report, Commissioner? I did not know the rush was [that] she was coming to the Commission of Inquiry,” Premier Fahie said.

“[The Auditor General was] trying to do a report in the middle of the worse pandemic in the last 100 years and speeding it up. Nobody understands that acceleration till afterwards now that I realise that we have a report in front of the Commission of Inquiry. It (the report) didn’t come to Cabinet, it didn’t come to the House of Assembly but it come to the Commission of Inquiry. And before that, the same things it is trying to allude to are what Dominic Raab said when he went to the House of Commons. It’s all related. So I have to come here to clear my government’s and my name. We have to clear the people of the Virgin Islands’ name. We ain’t thief no money,” the Premier further said.

My family and I were humiliated and but at risk


At the time, Fahie was being questioned why he was overly critical of the Auditor General’s report which, among other things, said the stimulus programme for farmers and fisherfolk violated procedure and inflated its payments to recipients.

The Premier was asked about this in the context of what the Auditor General would have known at the time of preparing the audit.

“Given how the money was distributed and the lack of transparency and accountability and authority for the payments, don’t you have some sympathy in general with the Auditor General’s report?” Sir Gary asked.

But Premier Fahie in responding by asking if anyone showed any sympathy for him and his family when allegations of corruption were first broached against the government.

“Commissioner, who have sympathy for when this whole inquiry was launched on me, when my wife and my picture end up in front of marijuana and drugs and have the world thinking that the BVI has a Premier that is a drug lord and a drug cartel? Who have sympathy on me?” Premier Fahie asked.

When asked how this could’ve been the responsibility of the Auditor General, the Premier side stepped the question.

Fahie said he was constantly asked about other persons, and insisted that he went through a lot as well.

Premier Fahie also told the commission that he felt that the Foreign Secretary endangered his children and said an apology was in order.

“They put our family at risk and nobody is studying that for us,” Fahie said.

Speaking more on the perceived ‘rush’ to audit his government’s stimulus programme, the Premier said the Auditor General should have waited and ‘cooler heads should have prevailed given the dire circumstances being faced by the territory at the start of the pandemic.

AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

PanaTimes
Close
0:00
0:00
US and European Intelligence Agencies Uncover Evidence of Ukrainian Role in Terror Attack on Nord Stream Pipeline
Nvidia Joins Tech Giants as First Chipmaker to Reach $1 Trillion Valuation
Drone Attack on Moscow's Wealthiest Neighborhoods Suspected to be Launched by Ukraine
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to Hold Power Talks with President Biden in Washington
AI ‘extinction’ should be same priority as nuclear war – experts
Prominent Hacker Forum RaidForums Suffers Substantial Data Breach
Nvidia CEO Huang says firms, individuals without AI expertise will be left behind
WPP Revolutionizes Advertising with NVIDIA's AI Powerhouse
Two US Employees Fired For Chasing Robbers Out Of Store As They Broke ''Company Policy''
If you donated to BLM, you got played
Pfizer, the EU, and disappearing ink - Smoke, Mirrors, and the Billion-Dose Pfizer Vaccine Deal: EU's 'Open Secret
Actor Tom Hanks told Harvard University graduates to be superheroes in their defense of truth and American ideals, and to resist those who twist the truth for their own gain
The Sussexes' Royal Rebound: Could Harry and Meghan Markle Return to the UK?
A provocative study suggests: Left-Wing Extremism and its Unsettling Connection to Psychopathy and Narcissism
France Arrests 10 on Suspicion of Failing to Respond in Time to Migrant Drowning
Neuralink Receives FDA Approval for First-in-Human Clinical Study
Saudi Arabia and Canada Restore Diplomatic Relations
Bernard Arnault Loses $11.2 Billion in One Day as Investors Fear Slowdown in US Growth Will Reduce Demand for Luxury Products
Russian’s Wagner Group leader: “I am not a chef, I am a butcher. Russia is in danger of a revolution like in 1917.”
TikTok Sues Montana Over Law Banning the App
Ron DeSantis Jumps Into 2024 Presidential Race, Setting Up Showdown With Trump
Last Walmart in North Portland Closing Down
Florida's DeSantis seeks to disqualify judge in Disney case
Talks between US House Republicans and President Biden's Democratic administration on raising the federal government's $31.4tn debt ceiling have paused
Disney has canceled plans to build a new campus in Florida worth almost $1 billion
Biden Administration Eyeing High-Profile Visits to China: The Biden Administration is heating things up by looking into setting up a series of top-level visits to Beijing by top officials in the coming months
New evidence in special counsel probe may undercut Trump’s claim documents he took were automatically declassified
A French court of appeals confirmed former President Nicolas Sarkozy's three-year jail term for corruption and influence peddling
Debt Ceiling Crises Have Unleashed Political Chaos
Weibao Wang, a former software engineer at Apple, was charged with stealing trade secrets related to autonomous systems, including self-driving cars
Mobile phone giant Vodafone to cut 11,000 jobs globally over three years as new boss says its performance not good enough
Elon Musk compares George Soros to Magneto, the supervillain from the Marvel Comics series.
Warren Buffett Sells TSMC Shares Over Concerns About Taiwan's Stability
New Study Finds That Secondary Bacterial Pneumonia Is a Major Cause of Death in COVID-19 Patients Who Require Ventilator Assistance
King Charles III being crowned.
'Godfather Of AI' Geoffrey Hinton Quits Google To Warn Of The Tech's Dangers
A Real woman
Vermont Man Charged with Stalking After Secretly Tracking Woman with Apple AirTag
Elon Musk Statements About Tesla Autopilot Could Be 'Deepfakes,' Lawyers Claim. Judge Evette Pennypacker Does Not Understand How Far and Advanced This Technology Became
Ukraine More Prepared for Counterattack as Reinforcements Arrive
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni Discuss Migration, Defence, and Ukraine
Tucker Carlson is back, soon!
AT&T's Successful Test of Satellite-Based Phone Call Raises Possibility of Widespread Coverage
CNN: "Joe Biden is asking for four more years — when 74% of Americans think the country is heading the wrong way“
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Cuts Short Live TV Interview Due to Health Issue
US Congresswoman threaten Twitter Files journalist with arrest
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh slams New York Times' pro-government stance and treatment of sources
Enough is enough: it's time to end the war in Ukraine. While Russia may be to blame for starting it, Russia is not the one refusing to stop it
Fox News Settles their case with Dominion Voting Systems for a staggering $787.5 MILLION
The land of the free violence
×