Governor Albert Bryan took time during the administration’s weekly press briefing to address how Covid-19 funds are being spent in the territory after hearing discussion surrounding his team’s use of the influx of federal dollars and claimed they have been “excellent stewards of the Covid dollars.”
After explaining all of his reasons for why he believes that the Virgin Islands are managing the money properly he said “There is no debate that we have managed the pandemic and we have managed the funds effectively. The living proof is the bustling economy that we have right now and all the projects that continue to go on despite a year and a half of Covid.”
The first point he addressed was about discussion he was hearing in the community in regards to how Covid-19 federal dollars are being spent towards motivating people to get vaccinated such as the vaccination lottery, “There's been a lot of discussion in the community regarding the Covid-relating funding. This funding is being used in the vaccine incentive and is specifically authorized for this purpose by the Biden administration… It’s not like we are using it for anything other than what it is supposed to be used for.”
He then stood up for all of the choices made to date with the Covid-19 funds, “all of our Covid related funds received thus far are properly accounted for, not a single dime has been returned due to mismanagement on anyone’s part.”
When talking about the way that the government has spent the federal Covid dollars some of the things he mentioned were the community vaccine centers, running public service announcements, giving all the children a laptop and MyFi device and the travel portal.
He said those decisions were made to keep the economy afloat and Virgin Islands families safe.
He added that having Covid-19 related supplies to keep people safe are available in the territory, “We don’t have shortage of testing material, we don’t have shortage of protective equipment like PPEs, no shortage of hand sanitizer, thermometers or any of the necessary materials we need to keep people safe.”
He explained that all the dollars have not been spent yet “because we knew that Covid wasn’t going anywhere, we made sure that we are timing this out so we can address any surges” and that “it was never our goal to expend all the money, all the time, mostly because of the way that we have handled Covid we have been blessed with enough money to run our government without adding in additional funds.”
He added that the funds are available to spend until 2026 and said “we have time in order to use this money and put it to prudent good.”
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