The House of Assembly began tackling its final Commission of Inquiry reform this week as legislators debated the first of five bills designed to improve the governance of five statutory bodies.
On Monday, Premier Dr. Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley read the National Parks Trust (Amendment) Bill, 2024, for a second time and explained its objects and reasons.
“I’m pleased to present the first in a series of amendments to legislations governing statutory boards as the government seeks to promote a more rational, organised and standardised approach to the management and oversight of statutory boards while we continue to implement the governance reform action plan,” Dr. Wheatley said.
Later that day, he told a press conference that the five bills are the HOA’s final step toward completing the reforms recommended by the April 2022 COI report, which alleged that many statutory boards had been operating with minimal accountability under heavy political interference.
The proposed NPT bill — like the other four bills, all of which were introduced on Aug. 29 — outlines new procedures for appointing and removing board members. It would also require boards to follow financial governance guidelines when keeping accounts and records, among other measures.
After a Monday debate, HOA members entered a closed-door committee session to discuss the bill further. As of Beacon press time yesterday afternoon, the bill remained in committee stage.
Public debate
Among the House members who spoke about the proposed bill on Monday were Opposition Leader Ronnie Skelton and his opposition colleagues Myron Walwyn (R-D6) and Mitch Turnbull (R-D2).
Mr. Walwyn supported the bill, saying he believes “it is high time that we have things in a standardised way.”
However, he also raised questions about certain aspects of the proposed law that he hoped would get “sorted out a bit better” in the closed-door committee stage.
“It says the provisions of the Public Procurement Act 2021 … shall apply to any procurement undertaken by the [NPT],” Mr. Walwyn said. “I don’t know if that is something that we want to do for these statutory corporations. We already see that the Procurement Act, as it is — it’s not working for central government.”
Mr. Walwyn also expressed concern with the bill’s requirements for becoming a member of the NPT board.
“We only have a small number of persons here,” he said. “The majority of persons who work who are BVIslanders work in the civil service, and if you work in the civil service you can’t be on a board. So we have to be very careful and look at this criteria carefully that we’re not doing things to eliminate our own people, Madam Speaker, from being members of these boards.”
Mr. Turnbull, who supported the bill, agreed with Mr. Walywn.
Mr. Skelton raised concerns with the standardisation of statutory boards.
“This one-size-fit-all that we doing — it’s bothering me a bit because the history of these statutory corporations and statutory boards were developed for the very purpose of being independent and carrying out the mandate of what we wanted to accomplish,” Mr. Skelton said.
He added that he does not believe the COI intended such ramifications.
“The people who are going to sit on the college board are not the same people who are going to sit on the hospital board or the same people going to sit on the National Parks Trust board,” he said. “And I know this is coming from [COI Commissioner Sir Gary Hickinbottom]. But, Madam Speaker, I’m sure if he’s listening and seeing some of these things, he will say, ‘That’s not what I intended.’”
Government side
The debate continued Tuesday, when Health and Social Development Minister Vincent Wheatley, Deputy Premier Lorna Smith and opposition member Julian Fraser spoke before the House went into committee.
Mr. Wheatley echoed Mr. Skelton’s concerns about standardisation.
“We have to be very careful with trying to standardise the procedure with all the boards,” the minister said.
Ms. Smith said she supported the bill “as the lesser of two evils.”
She added that when comparing the NPT bill with the other four bills, she had noticed a “cut-and-paste job … that cannot work.”
She added that she agreed with Mr. Walwyn that there should be a standardisation of the statutory boards, but she also agreed with Mr. Skelton that it should not be a “one-size-fits-all” approach.
Other bills
The next four bills on the HOA’s agenda are designed to reform the boards governing the BVI Tourist Board, the BVI Ports Authority, the BVI Health Services Authority, and the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College.
