Caribbean

UK Decides Against Imposing Direct Rule on British Virgin Islands, Gives Local Government Two Years to Implement Changes

The United Kingdom has decided against imposing direct rule on the British Virgin Islands for now, giving the territory two years to implement changes while warning that failure to do so would result in swift action. A 946-page Commission of Inquiry report led by Commissioner Gary Hickinbottom and submitted in April by BVI Governor John Rankin, concluded that among other actions, the BVI should lose autonomy and its government dissolved for two years because of gross failures of governance. The report highlighted failures of many members of parliament to register their interests as required by law, irregularities in the distribution of grants by parliamentarians and by central government, which suggest that corruption, dishonesty, and abuse of office may have taken place. Other government contracts were also scrutinized, several involving the former Premier Andrew Fahie. One example offered by Rankin was a series of contracts amounting to almost one million dollars awarded to a forme...