“I hear a lot of chatter of those who are fooling the people with our advisers, making them think that we took that money in a time when we could give [public servants] money,” Premier Fahie said during a recent House of Assembly sitting.

The Premier indicated he was eagerly awaiting salary reviews for public servants announced earlier this year — an initiative that is expected to be completed sometime next year.

“We cannot just give them a salary increase just like that and isolate certain areas and give them,” he added. “They know that that has to be done by the constitutional remit”.

We can’t govern from Facebook

Taking further aim at his critics, the Premier said while he welcomed the opinions and differing views of others, he insisted that the country cannot be run from the Facebook social media platform.

“We have to run the country with the laws,” he stated.

He said if people speak out of turn regarding how government works, then it is important that mature persons point them in the direction of the territory’s laws and guide them along the right path.

Premier Fahie suggested that it was also important that even though elected officials may take a certain course of action, persons must be made to understand that such an action was all they (the government) could have done.

The Premier argued that even though the governor has overall responsibility for the public service, the governor cannot arbitrarily deal with issues.

He said this is the reason his government has called for a salary review.

“I do not take it lightly to see someone with a master’s still making $35,000 a [year],” the Premier said.

Fahie maintained that the BVI’s systems need continued strengthening and said he wanted to ensure that the territory moves forward with the necessary transformations, job re-classification and salary reviews.