The Senate Finance Committee voted Monday to subpoena the Management and Budget director and commissioners of Property and Procurement and of Finance to testify on legislation requiring the Finance and Property and Procurement Departments to audit all government void, data and internet connectivity contracts and accounts.
Several senators expressed consternation after a letter from the administration was read into the record saying the testifiers would be unable to appear Monday. Some senators found it disrespectful to give late notice that no one would be there, said Sen. Janette Millin-Young after the vote.
It costs money to reschedule hearings, she said. And the administration’s input is needed.
Even if we save $10 (with an audit) at least we will have found out," Millin-Young said. "And financial oversight is one of our proper roles, at least in my view," she added.
Finance Commissioner Angel Dawson, OMB Director Debra Gottlieb and Property and Procurement Commissioner Lynn Millin-Maduro are the individuals to be subpoenaed. Gottlieb and Dawson last testified April 13.
Voting in favor of the subpoenas were Millin-Young, Sens. Carlton "Ital" Dowe, Samuel Sanes, Nereida "Nellie" Rivera-O’Reilly and Celestino White. Sens. Louis Patrick Hill and Shawn-Michael Malone were absent.
The committee indefinitely tabled a bill proposed by Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen at Hansen’s request that would have set aside a portion of stamp tax revenues to eventually fund construction of affordable housing in Bonne Esperance. Hansen withdrew the bill at the request of V.I. Housing Finance Authority Executive Director Adrienne Williams.
In a letter to Hansen, Williams said VIHFA has been developing several strategies with Hansen’s input, and asks that the bill be withdrawn to provide "an opportunity to finalized and implement the proposed strategy that is currently in process."
All these guys are trying to do is to deflect the attention from their theft of the $6.9 million. But is isn’t going to go away. Every time one of them makes a public appearance the press, or the public, should ask straight out “Are you one of the people referred to in the audit” – and then the lies and stammering will begin. When they are named, and if they had lied, they are toast. Well, maybe.
“Maybe” is right. Would you like some free fry fish with that “toast.”
Seems to me that all this wasteful spending could be nipped in the bud if ALL Goverment entities had regular forensic audits. A good place to start would be with WAPA since it has not had an Inspector General’s FORENSIC AUDIT going on 14 years, then move right on to VIWMA which has not had one since this bogus waste mismanagement authority was created.
Gee, wonder which friend of Chucky’s is going to make out like a bandit with our stamp tax money constructing affordable housing in Bonne Esperance!
Oh Please!Can we find some honest, intelligent, hardworking, capable men and women to run for the senate who absolutely knows how to balance a budget and won’t waste, misuse, misspend, mismanage our tax dollars and steal us blind?
Is that too much to ask?
If they’d round up all the damned free roaming chickens and roosters annoying the heck out of people in residential neighborhoods, they could have lots of foul/fowl for their “chicken fries!”
They don’t annoy me, and I see it as my personal responsibility to my community and neighbors to catch them myself so they are not an annoyance. ……………………..and then I eat them (well, except for the 2 egg layers).
Tritonvi
I want to second Cruzanirons first comment and Alana’s ideas for additional “Forensic Audits”. However the $6.9 MIllion is just the tip of the iceberg. Why does a population of approximately 110,000 need 15 representatives? The people voted over 14 years ago to reduce that number to 9 with over 80 % in favor and were ignored by the same body as “Not knowing what they were voting for”. This would have conservatively saved the people of the VI over $400 million in the last decade. I for one of many knew what I was voting for!
We need to have more real accountability on real issues from our elected officials.