The Commission of Inquiry has taken a toll on the Government says Premier Andrew Fahie. Speaking at a Government Press Conference today, Friday March 25th, the Premier addressed the stress that the COI caused the public service, calling the requests “unreasonable,” and alleging that the total cost incurred amounts to approximately five million dollars.
“We had to cope with an imposed Commission of Inquiry (COI) – that has taken a toll on your Government financially and that has affected many of our people emotionally – especially our public officers, in terms of the way that the COI was initiated and due to the strenuous deadlines with requests for information that were at times very unreasonable,” the Premier said.
The Premier added: “The issue has been the manner in which the Inquiry was done and the timing of it given the hefty and complex challenges that the Government and our public officers and our people – all our Virgin Islands and residents – had to be dealing with in the middle of COVID-19.”
When asked to elaborate on this “financial toll” that the COI has taken on the Government, the Premier equated the financial damage to approximately five million dollars.
“I would say that [the Government] is impacted in the millions. About close to five million dollars, if not more,” the Premier said.
The Premier noted that the exact figure would be given “when the time comes,” adding that the COI is still ongoing.