Business

V.I. Government Spends More Than $9 Million Annually in Rent; Property and Procurement Taking Steps to Change That

The Government of the Virgin Islands spends upwards $9 million annually for the vast number of buildings it rents across the territory. The figure is staggering, but over the years, administration after administration, instead of building government-owned facilities that could house a variety of government offices, have instead chosen to utilize buildings belonging to private owners — at the expense of taxpayers. Take for example the Dept. of Labor on St. Croix. D.O.L. officials in 2015 revealed to the Senate that the department’s St. Croix arm was locked into a 20-year lease with the owner for $322,000 annually. But according to Property and Procurement Commissioner Anthony Thomas, who started the job last year, this current administration is working on reducing the annual cost. The commissioner revealed the figure to the Consortium during an interview Tuesday night where he spoke about the myriad of positive changes coming to P&P that would first ascertain that every last cent of t...