Ethically challenged! Skelton slams VIP’s record
Progressive Virgin Islands Movement (PVIM) leader, Ronnie Skelton, described the BVI’s current political leaders as ethically challenged as he sought to demonstrate why he should replace Dr Natalio Wheatley as the territory’s next Premier.
Skelton served previously as the BVI’s Health and Social Development Minister under a previous National Democratic Party (NDP), but was fired from that post after disagreements with party leadership just before the previous elections in 2019. He then contested the last elections as leader of the PVIM but was unsuccessful in his bid.
He slammed the current Virgin Islands Party (VIP) government over its performance and accused it of poor governance in its handling of the post-2017 hurricane recovery and management of the global pandemic. The VIP has been rocked by a number of scandals over the past few years, including the arrest of its former leader and Premier Andrew Fahie in the United States last year on charges of drug smuggling and money laundering.
Skelton said there are serious problems facing the territory and argued that now is the time to return the BVI to a prosperous place. “This is the time when we need serious people with good leadership skills, vision and integrity. We need to save the country from the ethically challenged,” he argued.
The former legislator also called for a reset and recast to the BVI’s relationship with the United Kingdom (UK) to let them know there are capable people on the ground that can lead the terrirory and can follow rules of transparency, integrity, and accountability.
According to Skelton, while serving as Minister of Finance and as Health Minister previously, he did much to improve the welfare of residents of the BVI, building homes and improving various policies within the government he served. “I was the one who introduced the policy to make the first $10,000 of your income payroll tax free,” Skelton stated.
Meanwhile, Skelton addressed the controversial National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme which he helped introduce and said it was not just a good initiative, but an extremely important one. Skelton said critics of the scheme who don’t know what they are saying ‘should go sit down’.
Skelton said the current government has neither the capacity nor the will to fix the issues with the NHI and acknowledged that after a number of years there would be a need for ‘tweaking’ of the legislation and processes associated with the scheme.
“There is over 60 per cent of this population who cannot afford private health insurance. That is why the NHI came into existence,” Skelton said while assuring residents that he will fix the issues once elected.
He slammed the current Virgin Islands Party (VIP) government over its performance and accused it of poor governance in its handling of the post-2017 hurricane recovery and management of the global pandemic. The VIP has been rocked by a number of scandals over the past few years, including the arrest of its former leader and Premier Andrew Fahie in the United States last year on charges of drug smuggling and money laundering.
Skelton said there are serious problems facing the territory and argued that now is the time to return the BVI to a prosperous place. “This is the time when we need serious people with good leadership skills, vision and integrity. We need to save the country from the ethically challenged,” he argued.
The former legislator also called for a reset and recast to the BVI’s relationship with the United Kingdom (UK) to let them know there are capable people on the ground that can lead the terrirory and can follow rules of transparency, integrity, and accountability.
According to Skelton, while serving as Minister of Finance and as Health Minister previously, he did much to improve the welfare of residents of the BVI, building homes and improving various policies within the government he served. “I was the one who introduced the policy to make the first $10,000 of your income payroll tax free,” Skelton stated.
Meanwhile, Skelton addressed the controversial National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme which he helped introduce and said it was not just a good initiative, but an extremely important one. Skelton said critics of the scheme who don’t know what they are saying ‘should go sit down’.
Skelton said the current government has neither the capacity nor the will to fix the issues with the NHI and acknowledged that after a number of years there would be a need for ‘tweaking’ of the legislation and processes associated with the scheme.
“There is over 60 per cent of this population who cannot afford private health insurance. That is why the NHI came into existence,” Skelton said while assuring residents that he will fix the issues once elected.
