Delia Thomas, current Deputy Inspector General nominated for IG.
The current deputy inspector general has now been tapped to occupy the role as head of the Office of the Inspector General in a substantive way, Governor Albert Bryan announced during Monday’s Government House Briefing.
“There’s a new legacy of leadership that needs to be encountered at the Office of the Inspector General, and we looked far and wide to make sure we had the right selection,” Mr. Bryan said during the briefing. “We need a person who’s impeccable, whose integrity cannot be questioned."
That person is current Deputy Inspector General Delia Thomas, who has worked at the OIG for several decades. She started in June 1989 as a junior auditor back when the OIG was known as the V.I. Bureau of Audit and Control. She was then promoted to audit manager in 1999, and appointed deputy OIG in March 2001. In June 2002, she was confirmed for said position.
With offices in both districts, Ms. Thomas will lead an audit staff of eight professionals, an investigative unit and other administrative personnel.
Before announcing Ms. Thomas as his pick for the Inspector General position, Mr. Bryan noted that the office was an important one in ensuring the accountability of the various entities and agencies of the executive branch.
“We know of the audit of the hospital, and government house, the PFA - over the years, different things that helped us actually improve our system and tighten up where things may have been a little too lax,” the governor said.
The Office of the Inspector General has been without a substantive leader ever since former Inspector General Steven Van Beverhoudt retired following an over 30-year career in public life.
Monday’s Government House press briefing also featured remarks from Director of the Territorial Emergency Management Agency Daryl Jaschen, who said that the acute water shortage that had plagued the island of St. Croix for several weeks has been largely abated.
“The good news is that has been remediated, if you will," he said. "We had direct federal assistance that provided [for] the removal of about 400 yards of sargassum from the shoreline that was threatening the intake. The intake numbers right now, and the production for the Water & Power Authority on St. Croix are about 95-96 percent for every 24 hours."
The Emergency Declaration currently in effect, Mr. Jaschen says, will remain in place for the next “couple of weeks” but the VITEMA director says he did not expect it would need to be extended. However, with the peak season for sargassum deposits not over until October, Mr. Jaschen says officials continue to closely monitor the situation. He also spoke of the remarkably quiet tropical Atlantic, with activity far lower than what would typically be expected at this point in the hurricane season.
Nevertheless, the tropical wave expected to pass over the territory this coming weekend will bring with it the threat of lightning strikes and the potential for flooding due to heavy rainfall. As such, VITEMA will continue its sandbag distribution efforts.
People with disabilities, or seniors unable to pick up their sandbags themselves, can contact the VITEMA hotline at 340 774 2244 ext 6829 this week to request home delivery.
