It has come to light that a number of the government’s statutory bodies are significantly behind in submitting their audited financial statements, with some reports being last completed over a decade ago.
The alarming discovery was made during a recent sitting of the House of Assembly after the Opposition Leader Honourable Ronnie Skelton questioned the Premier and Minister of Finance Dr. the Honourable Natalio Wheatley on the status of the financial reports of statutory bodies.
While acknowledging the existence of over 70 statutory bodies in the territory, Premier Wheatley referenced 17 during his response.
Among those highlighted were the BVI Ports Authority (BVIPA) and the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) which last submitted their audited financial statements in 2013 while the BVI Airports Authority (BVIAA) and the National Health Insurance (NHI) last submitted an audited financial statement in 2014 and 2017 respectively.
Dr. Wheatley acknowledged the significant lapses in the submission of audited financial statements from some boards. However, he assured that his ministry has taken proactive steps by ramping up monitoring of the operations of statutory bodies, now mandating the submission of quarterly financial reports to address the delays.
Premier Wheatley also addressed the issue of financial reporting delays by discussing major legislative amendments to the Public Finance Management Act.
He said these proposed changes aim to bring the audited financial statements of statutory bodies up to date, enhancing transparency and accountability within the government.
Meanwhile, Skelton expressed that he was extremely surprised by the outstanding financial statements of some of the bodies, specifically those with significant fiscal responsibility such as the BVI Airports Authority and the Ports Authority.
Skelton expressed hope for improvements in the backlog of statements by the end of 2024 and issued a warning that he would be seeking regular updates to closely monitor the progress in addressing this critical issue.