Leader of the Opposition Marlon Penn has said that neither the premier or any minister has the authority to instruct a statutory board to perform requested directives in the management of their organisation’s daily operations.
Penn’s comment comes after it was revealed in a leaked document that Premier Andrew Fahie allegedly instructed the Minister for Health Carvin Malone, to direct the Chairman and Board of the BVI Health Services Authority (BVIHSA) to perform several requested tasks.
These included instructions to administer leave to several BVIHSA staff members including two senior officers, as well as a directive to have a forensic audit conducted at the BVIHSA.
Penn said the overreach by the premier and the minister are serious corporate governance issues that are part of the reason why the BVI was summoned to undergo a Commission of Inquiry.
He said, “We’re still usurping the legislations that we’re supposed to address and maintain as legislators and going behind the board’s back. And it goes back to the competence of these boards. The boards should not engage the premier because there’s a governance process in terms of how the boards are managed and should be run and there’s a process in which things should be done as it relates to body corporates and how they operate.”
“These are issues of concern and we raise them because it is important because these decisions and these actions have implications for us as a territory,” he added.
Penn said these and other similar actions are all evidence of how this present government continues to mismanage the territory.