Audit Findings Only Beginning Of Deconstruction Of Government’s Corruption Machine
For the past week we’ve been watching and listening as the community reacts to the now audited revelations of the theft and misuse of public funds by as yet unnamed members of the Legislature.
Much of the public focus has been on the matter of the travel expenses and cash advance misuse in the 28th Legislature. Sen. Shawn Malone is “dismayed”: Sen. Usie Richards wants us all to know this never happened when he was President of the Legislature – clean as a whistle it was; Sen. Nellie O’Reilly has been vocal about the need for consequences for those who are involved in the misuse of funds.
Meanwhile, current Sen. President Ronald Russell has refused to commit to codifying – or making law – policies that would prevent this type of abuse from happening again without the consequence of criminal prosecution.
And Sen. Louis Hill, who was president of the 28th version of this lawbreaking body, simply doesn’t feel the matter warrants his comment.
But while our attention is being focused on the travel scandal and equally on the completely arbitrary awarding of bonuses to selected Legislative employees, let us not overlook the area where perhaps the greatest misuse of funds has occurred – the money that passed through various hands in the scores of non-competitive contracts that were awarded during the audit period – and some say continuing in some quarters in the present day – is where the real story lies in this fiasco.
The end of the audit is not the end of the investigation and there will be more information forthcoming about the extent of the fraud connected with these contracts, and the participation of numerous government agencies who had direct or indirect knowledge of what was taking place.
One of the other prickly points in the discussion of this audit is why were the senators who were described as participating in the fraud protected through the anonymity afforded to them in the document? CIF has spoken to a few insiders who have offered a thought-provoking perspective on that issue.
Anyone who has paid the slightest bit of attention to the financial atrocities in the Legislature over the past five years can readily identify many of those “anonymously” referenced in the audit. Does anyone really wonder who the unnamed senator was who received tens of thousands of dollars in pursuit of historic records from the Danish government?
 How many “long term” Senators are there who could be the person who has received some $25,000 in cash advances over the past five years and has never submitted any documentation justifying its expenditure? And we know who it was who was reimbursed for expenses for a trip to Italy while simultaneously being reimbursed for hotel expenses on St. Thomas – and we know why.
And if we know, why didn’t the audit just name them?
Well it seems that the same lack of accountability and control that allowed this situation to continue in the first place is also a barrier to definitively identifying by name those who are strongly suspected of misusing all of the funds outlined in the audit.
 And while it is clear to whom the money was issued, and highly questionable that many of those funds were used for the purpose intended, our sources tell us that public identification – and any legal consequence, including prosecution – will be delayed while those under scrutiny scramble to come up with the missing “documentation” designed to clear their as yet unstated names.
On the other hand, it is also alleged that some Senators who have been accused of malfeasance based on missing documentation did indeed use the funds as intended – and did document that appropriate usage – but that those receipts and other documents have mysteriously “disappeared” from the now infamous Legislative Business Office, where these transactions are processed. Those Senators, we are told, are now on the hunt for copies of long-past submitted receipts and other verification of appropriate use of funds that are being demanded to “clear their names” before specific offenders are revealed.
So while they continue to delay the inevitable – because someone will be prosecuted before this is done – the true investigators (and we aren’t talking about the Virgin Islands Attorney General’s Office) – are now in possession of even more information pointing definitively at what is arguably one of the most corrupt regimes in recorded history and history says that action, when taken, will be more than equal to the severity of these crimes.
We’ll let them do their job and encourage all Virgin Islanders to take every opportunity to let these so-called “lawmakers” aware of the full measure of your outrage and disgust. We believe the remedy is obvious – some whole bunch of people need to go to directly to jail.
In the meantime, we will focus on the outcome of the Board of Elections meeting scheduled for Wednesday, on the matter of another “lawmaker,” one Alicia Hansen, who has been convicted of breaking the law – but somehow managed to secure permission to run for public office while still on probation for her crime.
Considering the company we now know occupies the institution in which she is serving, are we really surprised?
utill the senators are acountle to districs they represent all we will get is more of the same, our stx senators can be elected by stt+stj voters and the same for anyone running, this puts the power in the hands of the large familys that really run this teratory, they electthose that keep them in goverment jobs they are not qualified for, you know the names, so even tossing them all out will only let those familys in power elect the next group of puppets, the resurfacing of those who were not elected last time should tell us all about our system, we are doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. what do you think will happen if you put a sheep with wolves? thats verry similer to putting an honnest person in with the pack of wolves we have now, as long as there is a core group to run the senate, a core group to asign commitees,a core group to override common sence, then there will be a minorty with no real power to stop the train.
time for districts time for senators to have to represent single areas and have to answer to those areas, yes we will get chANGE but isnt that what we all want change
Everyones seems to take it for granted that our votes really do count. There is strong indication that anyone who is morally corrupt enough can predetermine the outcome of an election, and it can be easily done with the machines we now have. An election system is only as trustworthy as the people who run it ….SIGN THE RECALL of the Board of Election members! We keep running around in circles blaming everyone as well as ourselves. Do something that will make a difference. Recall petitions are the most concrete and indisputable way to vote in the VI right now. No one can deny the numbers of signatures collected, and that number needs to be high.