TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands BVI Commission of Inquiry (COI) Status

I've been perusing the rather lengthy and dry courts documents supplied on the COI website (https://bvi.public-inquiry.uk/) in the past weeks and the most recent document left me really shaking my head in amazement - I'm sure that the BVI politicians and bureaucrats involved are happy that very few of their constituents would read through hundreds of pages of transcripts. But today's session will be televised live (June 2nd, 15:00UTC, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyn16Lamjc0trQoAz-ukWMA) so perhaps more BVI Islanders will see what terrible memories their elected representatives have, how evasive their answers are, how bad their record keeping has been and how many of their e-mail attachments have **poof** disappeared magically before their eyes.

Sir, you can’t seem to remember for the court any events that occurred over the last 5 years, can you remember what you did yesterday? “Well, I am pretty sure I am about to forget yesterday in the next minute or so however I am pretty confident about today!”

I'm watching the livestream right now and am surprised that there are only 45 others doing so. So far it is only the introductory statements, but those are already pretty damning and promise more to come.

Hey, we’re on Slow E, paying for every byte of data. Appreciate your synopsis.

Still watching - the proceedings today are regarding cabinet meeting notes. The cabinet has been asked to supply meeting minutes and notes and their lawyers today have made a big issue of them having done so. They glossed over the fact that they were asked several months ago and have just barely managed to supply those notes a couple of days ago. The whole issue now is that the BVI has stated that they don't need to supply to the audio recordings, just the notes. The lawyers for both sides (note - the BVI attorney general hasn't said a word yet, just let the paid attorney do the arguments) have presented their cases and I must admit that the BVI's attorney did a pretty good job so far, but hasn't been convincing - so it looks like the COI is going to get the audio recordings and not the "sanitized" minutes.

Wow - it is, surprisingly, an interesting deliberation. There's an internet glitch right now, so I'm responding here. The poor attorney for the BVI (his boss, the BVI attorney general, still hasn't said a word) tried some arguments that were contentious and close to contempt but has been rebuffed both by crown attorney and the commissioner. Looks like the commissioner is going to get the tape recordings of cabinet meetings. The written notes of the meetings for the past year haven't been finalized, so can't be used - but if the COI gets the tape recordings it could get quite interesting. I REALLY hope they discussed those barges in cabinet

Much more than the previous written records, this meeting shows how much resistance the BVI authorities are giving to the inquiry. They are trying every ploy they can and the COI has already stated that they will extend their inquires past the original due date because they aren't being supplied the information that they've requested. That means that those hoping to use delaying tactics aren't going to be successful.

Reading between the lines one can see that the COI isn't happy but is still just shy of making accusations of obstruction.

Apathy is a democracy killer for sure!

The live stream failed due to technical issues, but I've watched the subsequently published recording and just had to smile at the results. The imputations by counsel for the BVI government were rebuffed with a stern rebuke, the BVI Attorney General said not a word (wisely), the $US 5 Million local law firm Silk Legal said but a few sentences (which even the commissioner looked confused by) that made no sense and then the meeting was adjourned. The COI mentioned a "saga" getting the requested documents. Mentioned how "Hurricane Irma destruction" was used as an excuse for not producing documents that are only a year old. I remember watching Perry Mason episodes as a kid and then experiencing many real courtrooms as a participant - and this livestream is much closer to the former than the (rather boring) latter. I am confidant that the future proceedings will be damning for the BVI. So far, without exception, the witnessing have had bad memories, bad paperwork, vague recollections, and have professed to be only marginally associated with others - even though those others are close relatives

Keep the updates coming!