Former Governor of the British Virgin Islands Augustus JU Jaspert, was recently named as one of the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2021 after calling for a COI in the territory of Virgin Islands.
The Queen’s Birthday Honours for 2021 are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as part of the Queen’s Official Birthday celebrations during the month of June. The honours for New Zealand were announced on 7 June.
Augustus James Ulysses Jaspert, received the Order of St Michael and St George for “services to British foreign policy”.
In January 2021 directly before leaving office, Jaspert called for a COI siting that “his office had received a litany of complaints regarding lack of transparency in government.”
Jaspert officially announced on January 18th, 2021 via a Facebook post that he decided to issue a Commission of Inquiry (COI), in accordance with BVI’s Commissions of Inquiry Act.
Jaspert said, “The Commission will look into whether corruption, abuse of office or other serious dishonesty in relation to officials — elected, statutory or public — may have taken place in recent years. If so, it will consider the conditions which allowed this to take place and make independent recommendations for improvement,” Governor Jaspert said.
Jaspert upon leaving office as Governor immediately joined forces and took up a post with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson as intern head of Downing Street. The two previously worked together when Johnson served as UK foreign secretary.
The new Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit for which Jaspert is serving as Interim Director is said to have been created to provide “the strongest possible approach” to support the successful delivery of the government’s agenda, based on the recommendations of a review by Sir Michael Barber.
In April 2021, during a House of Assembly sitting. Leader of Government Business Hon. Andrew A Fahie admitted that a breakdown in the relationship between his government and former Governor Augustus Jaspert’s office is partly why a Commission of Inquiry was launched in the territory.
Fahie said: “I believe this (COI announcement) may have been driven in part by unfortunate and sometimes personalised political disagreements between the elected and the unelected arms of the government and by a breakdown in the relationship of trust between them.”
Is the former Governor being rewarded by the UK for his role in calling the Commission of Inquiry?
Was his sole purpose for calling for the Commission of Inquiry an attempt to be praised and rewarded by the UK Government in the name of “services to British foreign policy”, while placing the BVI on a national stage to be ripped apart?