Public Cannot Know Who Was Paid For Work on Festivals in BVI, Says Premier Wheatley

The names of individuals and businesses who worked on national festivals in the British Virgin islands over the past two years would remain secret, BVI Premier Natalio Wheatley decided during a recent sitting of the House of Assembly.

Asked for details on finances of the Virgin Islands Festivals Committee, including payables and receivables for 2022 and 2023, Wheatley told District Eight Representative Marlon Penn that “in the spirit of transparency, the names of the individuals and businesses are redacted.”

The censored information was presented because “I cannot in good conscience participate in something I’ve been seeing happen since I’ve come to his House, especially with the COI, where persons’ identities who have done transactions with government…[are] placed into the public square, and persons are targeted and ridiculed,” Dr. Wheatley said.

The premier argued that Freedom of information legislation had to be passed, “before the life of this administration ends” so that the country could have “a good conversation about what type of information should be accessible to the public.”

Whealthey claimed that there have been people who were driven “almost to the point of emotional breakdown” due to the public scrutiny they have received. “I’m not going to participate in that, whether it’s public funds or not,” he declared. “I do not believe that it is in the public interest to do that to individuals in the public”.