Beautiful Virgin Islands

Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

More Budget Cuts Coming! Some Public Servants Operating As If It’s Business As Usual

More Budget Cuts Coming! Some Public Servants Operating As If It’s Business As Usual

The Territory’s Finance Minister has put the people of the BVI on notice that tough decisions will have to be made and there is a high possibility that more cutbacks will be forthcoming.
This includes scaling back on some government programmes and possibly having to produce a revised budget based on the financial situation in the Territory.

Premier and Finance Minister, Hon. Andrew Fahie, who made this disclosure, also expressed concerns that some public servants are operating as if its business as usual and running up government’s bills.

“You know last year because of the shutdown we had to do a revised budget, this year because of the current spike (COVID-19) and some other issues it may be something that we have to do again. We are trying to make sure too that we control expenditure,” the Premier stated.

He added, “I must say here that there are challenges trying to get this expenditure control because while there are a number of public officers who recognized that we have challenges with COVID-19, there are still a few trying to operate as if it is business as usual, and increasing, increasing the request hence increasing the expenditure.”

Premier Fahie further stated, “Some very heavy decisions are going to have to be made that would not be political decisions, but financial ones to make sure that we continue navigate this financial shift through these uncharted turbulence water without any playbook.”

He was at the time responding to questions from Hon. Melvin ‘Mitch’ Turnbull, Second District Representative, who questioned that given Territory’s plight still having to recover from the effects of the 2017 hurricanes and now more recently with the pandemic, for
the Premier to give the debt to GDP ratio of the Territory as of April 30th 2021.

He had also asked for the projections towards 2021 given the 18 months dealing with COVID-19.

Premier Fahie said that it must be noted that every government in the world is experiencing financial difficulties with COVID-19, noting that the projections for all country are now being shifted.

“We have been trying to hold steady with the revenue side based on what we have seen but the reality is we had to make some adjustments to keep the lights on, and to keep public officers hired and to our dismay we didn’t want to have to cut certain programmes but it is either cut programmes and keep certain capital things moving that are needed for the rebuilding of our territory or cut public officers,” he explained.

However, he said the choice is difficult but not so difficult, “we decided that no public officer would lose their jobs...every single ministry have programmes cut, we are trying to do more with less.”

“We are asking persons to cut back not because we want to be mean but so that we can keep all the public officers hired, keep certain things moving that would bring in revenues, so we can band together and navigate ourselves through these financial challenges because we still have to keep a very keen eye on hurricanes,” the Finance Minister cautioned.

“If it calls for a revise budget, further cuts to certain areas so that we could keep persons employed, keep the basic services running then we would have to do so. But one thing for sure we have to make adjustments all the time and we will be making some more so that we can be able to manage the finances of the country based on the revenue we have coming in,” he further explained.

Premier Fahie said that the government must also be cautious about its expenditure which can affect its borrowing ratio, bordering on being in breach of the Protocols for Effective Financial Management.

“It also means that if we have more expenditures too it will affect our borrowing power because then we could only borrow less because then our ratio would be affected also…[must ensure] they are in range with the protocols, so they have to guard against this,” he said.
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
×