The V.I. Department of Tourism received a stern warning from senators on the Committee on Finance on Wednesday, who reminded them of their responsibility to ensure that they honor their financial obligations to vendors who work with the department.
Senators learnt that several vendors had not been receiving their monies, including vendors working on the docks who had not been paid since October 2021. These workers are paid using funds from the Hotel Occupancy Tax, which is part of the Tourism Revolving Fund and has a current balance of $59 million.
“We really need to get this cleared up," said Senator Samuel Carrion. "Our office has received copies and we’ve been copied on emails that have been sent to the Department of Tourism. [The Office of Management and Budget] is saying that it’s Tourism, Tourism is saying that it’s OMB, OMB is saying that it’s the nonprofits."
“We just need to get these organizations the funds that have been allocated an appropriated to them. They’re doing work in the territory; they’re partnering with the government and we need the services that they are providing. So, we just need to get to the bottom of this and ensure that they receive the funds that have been appropriated to them,” he added.
Senator Kurt Vialet, chair on the Committee on Finance said there should be no reason why the funds had not yet been disbursed, particularly as there is money available.
“It’s not that we don’t have the monies. So we shouldn’t be nickel and dimming these entities that provide a service to the Virgin Islands on a regular basis,” he stated.
According to Senator Janelle Sarauw, it was unjustifiable for dock workers not to have been paid for several months. “A state of emergency means a state of urgency,” she declared, noting that vendors work under unfavorable conditions to provide a much-needed service.
“These people have employees that they have to pay and they can’t pay their employees because you didn’t pay them,” she insisted.
The senator also pointed out the executives’ unwillingness to meet with her to discuss these issues, telling them that “The reason that you and a few people have a job is because this branch of government saw it fit to implement the Division of Festivals. So, to carve out one hour to meet with this body and hear plans on what you’re doing and have an offline discussion – we could have talked about this a long time ago so I need a better response time from Tourism because all of us are busy."
In response to the delay in payment, Alani Henneman-Todman, assistant commissioner of Marketing in the Department of Tourism gave a commitment to pay vendors in a few weeks.
“We have to go through the procurement process. We’ve also waited for vendors to update their documents so that we can follow the procedure,” she shared, adding that payments would be made in no less than another two to three weeks. She said that their contract will be in place so that this doesn’t happen again.
There are also nonprofit organizations who partner with the department to promote the Virgin Islands as a travel destination which have not received monies that have been appropriated by the government.
Henneman-Todman and Joseph Boschulte, D.O.T. commissioner explained why delays may arise with payments. “To date we have supported all necessary paper work on our side to release all of the appropriations,” Henneman-Todman said, but noted that delays may arise if nonprofits fail to present their current business license and the documents required to process the funds.
“We have a role but we don’t release the money,” Mr. Boschulte explained further, suggesting that a meeting be held to bring these organizations into compliance by demonstrating the correct process to access funds.
“What we do is that we try to go ahead and get the money to the sources but I think one of the things that we need to do as a team before fiscal 2023 comes out, is to have an orientation with all of these nonprofits that receive monies to let them know what the process is to receive the money," Mr. Boschulte said.
Meanwhile, the governor has recommended a Tourism Advertising Revolving Fund appropriation of $30,097,941 for Fiscal Year 2023. The department is expected to receive additional funds from Federal Grants in the amount of $190,323; totaling $30,288,263.
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