No clear plan! Penn chides gov’t for BVI’s poor infrastructure
Opposition Leader Marlon Penn has criticised the ruling Virgin Islands Party (VIP) administration for having no clear plan on how to approach some of the dire infrastructural issues facing the territory.
“What we’ve seen from this administration is a constant patch-and-go approach to fixing the terrible areas of the road infrastructure,” Penn said on the NDP Radio show recently.
Penn argued that the issue for the VIP is largely one of prioritising and allocating the necessary funding to address the issue of the badly needed road repairs in the territory.
“We’ve seen the conversation online — and just along the entire territory — persons are complaining and have concerns, rightfully so, concerning the road infrastructure in this territory.”
Penn said his former governing National Democratic Party (NDP) put provisions in place through a Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) loan to address infrastructure issues, months before it left office.
“There’s no clear plan, other than the plans that were established, the designs that were done, to fix the infrastructure issues in our territory, to fix those additional infrastructural issues,” he said.
Penn claimed that no other road infrastructure projects have been executed by the VIP administration other than those secured through the CDB loan funding acquired by the NDP.
According to the Opposition Leader, for two consecutive years – 2020 and 2021 – $300,000 had been allocated in the budget to address road repairs around the territory, but he maintained that this was insufficient.
Furthermore, Penn complained that a $200,000 subvention that was previously awarded to District Representatives to address local infrastructural works within their own communities has now been cut to $100,000.
Penn argued that the issue for the VIP is largely one of prioritising and allocating the necessary funding to address the issue of the badly needed road repairs in the territory.
“We’ve seen the conversation online — and just along the entire territory — persons are complaining and have concerns, rightfully so, concerning the road infrastructure in this territory.”
Penn said his former governing National Democratic Party (NDP) put provisions in place through a Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) loan to address infrastructure issues, months before it left office.
“There’s no clear plan, other than the plans that were established, the designs that were done, to fix the infrastructure issues in our territory, to fix those additional infrastructural issues,” he said.
Penn claimed that no other road infrastructure projects have been executed by the VIP administration other than those secured through the CDB loan funding acquired by the NDP.
According to the Opposition Leader, for two consecutive years – 2020 and 2021 – $300,000 had been allocated in the budget to address road repairs around the territory, but he maintained that this was insufficient.
Furthermore, Penn complained that a $200,000 subvention that was previously awarded to District Representatives to address local infrastructural works within their own communities has now been cut to $100,000.
