Beautiful Virgin Islands

Thursday, Oct 30, 2025

'Let them carry on with their mischief, we have nothing to hide'

'Let them carry on with their mischief, we have nothing to hide'

Government ministers are on the road encouraging residents to not lose sleep over the recently launched Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into governance as they are confident that they have done no wrong and have nothing to hide.

Among those with this message is Minister for Natural Resources, Labour and Immigration, Honourable Vincent O. Wheatley (R9) who at the Saturday, January 23, 2021 community meeting in Baughers Bay stressed that the CoI is a move to dissuade the government from its mission to empower residents.

“Ever since we got elected, for a matter of fact, when we ran, we ran on two or three very specific things we wanted to achieve for this territory. One of them is the empowerment of the people and that message was so well taken, so well received that it got some people scared.”

One of the clear policies of the Virgin Islands Party (VIP) Government has been about empowering its own people and this was recently seen with the swearing-in of Dawn J. Smith as a first local attorney general in some 20 years.

It has maintained that locals are capable of filling top posts in the territory.

This was also highlighted with the passing of the Disaster Management Act 2020, which, among other things, seeks to return the responsibility to local government.


The Commission of Inquiry was called by ex-governor Augustus J. U. Jaspert, who is well known to have had a strained relationship with the elected government.

Gov't going too far!


According to Hon Wheatley, not everyone was pleased with the Government's agenda of people empowerment.

“They said you people are going too far with this empowerment idea. So they are trying their best to dissuade us from continuing down that trend, but the only way we are going to go, one way, the empowerment of our people to handle their own affairs at some point or the other, there is no turning back, I don’t care what they try, we are on this path and we are going to stay there,” the Minister said.

Hon Wheatley also reflected that the Virgin Islands Party (VIP) had campaigned on the platform of transforming the territory and it has been moving in that direction.

“And transform we will transform the BVI, we are not going back we are going forward, and when we go forward we will continue to go even further forward.”


One of the clear policies of the Virgin Islands Party (VIP) Government, led by Premier and Minister of Finance, Hon Andrew A. Fahie, has been about empowering the Virgin Islands people.

'There will be more attacks'- Hon Wheatley


He warned; however, that there will be resistance to the plans.

“So you’ll see these attacks here, and many more to come, but we know from whence our strength comes from so we are not afraid, we are all sleeping good at nights we have nothing to hide, we have nothing to be afraid, so let them carry on with their mischief, let them carry on with their mischief, it's ok.

“You don’t have to fear anything about this government here, everything is transparent, plain and accountable.”

Hon Wheatley said the government has been taking its time to cross the Is and dot the Ts, which resulted in some things taking longer than expected, “And that’s why some things have been taking so long to happen during this pandemic, we got to make sure, we said it, these things are going to be audited we had to make sure every T was crossed and every I dotted.

“And yall complained saying why it take so long, not yall, understand why we took the time that all systems of accountability were in place because we know the possibility of this happening and here we are, here we are now, a commission of inquiry. Every newspaper all over the world, BVI is a croak, drug dealers, BVI has stolen money, all sort of madness pure foolishness, they will not detract us from our mission and our purpose of empowering you the people. That is our pledge to you all, and once we pledge it we are going to do it.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
UK and Vietnam Sign Landmark Migration Deal to Fast-Track Returns of Irregular Arrivals
UK Drug-Pricing Overhaul Essential for Life-Sciences Ambition, Says GSK Chief
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Temporarily Leave the UK Amid Their Parents’ Royal Fallout
UK Weighs Early End to Oil and Gas Windfall Tax as Reeves Seeks Investment Commitments
UK Retail Inflation Slows as Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since Spring
Next Raises Full-Year Profit Guidance After Strong Third-Quarter Performance
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson Admits to 'Gaming' Benefits System While Advocating Crackdown
United States and South Korea Conclude Major Trade Accord Worth $350 Billion
Hurricane Melissa Strikes Cuba After Devastating Jamaica With Record Winds
Vice President Vance to Headline Turning Point USA Campus Event at Ole Miss
U.S. Targets Maritime Narco-Routes While Border Pressure to Mexico Remains Limited
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
×