GOVERNOR RANKIN GRANTS 3-MONTH EXTENSION TO THE COI TO PREPARE ITS REPORT
Written by Fuze Social Team on January 5, 2022
Governor John Rankin has granted a further 3-month extension to the Commission of Inquiry, COI, which he says is to give the Commissioner and his team, time to prepare the report.
According to Governor Rankin, the CoI has received a huge amount of documentation from the Inquiry Response Unit (IRU) on behalf of the Attorney General’s office, as well as information provided by the people of the BVI.
He said that many of the documents are likely to be used in support of the Commissioner’s report, and his team continue to work with the IRU to ensure that any redaction applications they make (to remove or blank out information) are dealt with, so the final report is transparent and to enable its full publication.
The statement said that both the volume of documents involved and the time taken for the redaction applications to be made and considered have had an impact on the Commissioner’s ability to finalise his report and supporting documentation within the current timeframe.
And while the COI team has been given the three-month extension, in a press release immediately after the Governor’s statement, seems to be suggesting that the delay in presenting the report has to do with the poor manner in which the documents it requested from Government was presented and Ministers not wanting certain documents published.
The press release from the COI’s Public Relations arm said that it has obtained very many documents from the BVI Government, a large number of which the Commissioner will wish to rely on in his Report.
The release said further, that as recorded elsewhere, these documents have been produced often in very poor order, and further, despite directions from the Commissioner, the elected Ministers (including the Cabinet as such) have not taken timely advantage of opportunities to make applications to the Commissioner that documents (or parts of documents) which have been sent to the COI should not be disclosed to the public.
It said had such applications been made in a timely way, the Commissioner could and would have been able to have published the documents already, which would have helped the BVI public to understand the issues as they arose.
