Jaspert can’t recall pressuring Premier to sign UK loan guarantee

Former Governor, Augustus Jaspert, said he has no recollection of ‘intensely’ pressuring Premier Andrew Fahie into signing a loan agreement that was offered by the UK government for hurricane recovery.

In a position statement from government ministers to the Commission of Inquiry (COI), it was said that “from the very first day of its mandate, the newly elected government came under heavy pressure from former governor Jaspert to agree and sign up to the terms of the loan guarantee agreement”.

The statement further claimed Jaspert went as far as to place the papers for signature before the Premier immediately upon swearing him in.

But the government said it resisted doing so on the grounds that it was unwilling to put itself in the position of sacrificing political and democratic control. The Fahie administration said these were effectively the conditions of the UK’s offer to pay off up to £300 million of the BVI’s debt in the event the territory defaults on its obligation.

The ministers added that the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) — under which the governor is assigned — even informed the government that if it rejects the loan guarantee, the FCDO “will not look favourably under the Protocols for Effective Financial Management on any alternative borrowing”.