Beautiful Virgin Islands

Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

Auditor General ‘Deliberately Blocked’ From Accessing COVID-19 Stimulus Files

Auditor General ‘Deliberately Blocked’ From Accessing COVID-19 Stimulus Files

Auditor General, Ms. Sonia Webster has concluded that her office was deliberately blocked from accessing files and documents relating to the COVID-19 stimulus initiative announced by the current Virgin Islands Party (VIP) administration.

The Auditor General made the revelations while discussing her June 21, 2021 audit report on the stimulus grant to farmers and fisherfolks which is engaging the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into Government corruption.

Webster told the CoI that initially, there was no response from the Premier’s Office and subsequently they were told that the information could not be sent to the Auditor General’s Office because Internal Audit was performing a similar exercise.

According to Webster, her response was that if Internal Audit has the records then her office can have access to the databases and other information that Internal Audit would not be using.

“Even that did not meet with their requirement….We had to undertake the exercise without getting information from the Premier’s Office. I believe there was deliberate attempt to prevent the office from getting the information in order to do this exercise. I say that because we made several concessions, for want of a better word, being, if you can’t get us the files, we will work with the database for now and look at the files later and that was not satisfactory,” Webster explained to the CoI.

Access Granted, Then Denied


She also stated that in addition to the farmers and fisherfolk grants, there was another aspect of the COVID-19 audit that relate to ‘the SME COVID grants’ that were issued to companies.

“We were granted access to that database and then told that the Premier’s Office had instructed that that access be removed. From where we sit there was a deliberate effort to prevent this office from getting access to this information,” Webster disclosed.

Counsel to the CoI, Bilal Rawat highlighted the ‘restrictions’ stated in the Auditor General’s report on the farmers and fisherfolk stimilus.

“The Auditor General’s office was unable to obtain the relevant files and information through the Premier’s Office pertaining to the COVID-19 stimulus grants which were repeatedly requested by email and telephone. This includes access to databases, documents, reports and other information relevant to policy development and implementation programmes,” Rawat read into the record of the CoI from the report.

He added from the report, “The refusal to present this information is in direct contravention of the Virgin Islands Constitution and the Audit Act which provides for this office to have access to Government documents and records. No public officer expending public funds as the authority to deny information requested for audit purposes.”

The Auditor General stated that under the Audit Act, there is no basis for refusal in preventing access to the information and that anyone who does prevent access to the information would be undermining the constitution.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×