Chairman of the Progressive Virgin Islands Movement party Ronnie Skelton is promising to completely repeal the Retiring Allowances Act if his party is successful in the upcoming general election.
The Act which continues to spark concerns among residents and some political candidates was recently brought to the spotlight by National Democratic Party candidate Myron Walwyn, who has since been criticised by Premier Dr. the Honourable Natalio Wheatley for being one of the beneficiaries of the legislation.
Speaking on the Act at recent campaign within the Second District, Skelton said completely repealing the Act will be the first order of business for his PVIM government once victorious at the polls.
Skelton said his purpose for completely repealing the legislation is because of the many loopholes which exist in the Act, including the section which provide allowances to elected officials.
On the contrary, Sixth District candidate Walwyn said that the Retiring Allowances (Legislative Service) (Amendment) Act, 2021 needs to be partially repealed, labelling parts of the Act as the “height of political wickedness”.
Walwyn said that the law was passed under the Virgin Islands Party government during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to benefit the elected officials at the expense of the tax paying residents.
In recent interview on 284Media’s Just for the Record election series which will be airing from this evening, Walwyn explained the part of the legislation that he believes needs to be repealed, stating that his pension benefits which was revealed by Premier Wheatley have nothing to do with the controversial section of the Act.
Dr. Wheatley had indicated during a recent political campaign that it was his idea to repeal the legislation, claiming that Chairman of the National Democratic Party Hon. Marlon Penn took his idea and ran with it.
The premier further claimed that Penn only decided to advocate for the repeal of the legislation after seeking legal advice which informed Penn that his gratuity package would not be affected.