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Government Transparency Gets Boost in U.S. Virgin Islands

A newly signed law requires the current transparency website to include not just the central government, but “all government instrumentalities,” the Legislature, the local courts and all semi-autonomous agencies.

(TNS) — New enhancements to the V.I. government’s financial transparency website are expected to bring a historic level of transparency and accountability to the public’s fingertips.

Bill 33-0032, which was signed this week by Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. and unanimously passed during a May 15 legislative session, requires the current transparency website to include not just the central government, but “all government instrumentalities,” the Legislature, the local courts and all semi-autonomous agencies.

The intent, according to bill sponsor Sen. Donna Frett-Gregory, is to “extend transparency” beyond the central government and to include all those entities that use local taxpayer dollars.

“We have a lot of governments within our government and it is time that the members of this community have an opportunity to see all that is happening in those entities as it relates to our money, the people of the Virgin Islands’ money,” said Frett-Gregory, during the legislative session.

Currently, the website — transparency.vi.gov — contains only financial information from central government entities like the Education and Health departments.

By June 1, 2020, the additional entities — including semi-autonomous agencies like the Water and Power Authority and the Waste Management Authority — must be compiled and posted online.

The V.I. Office of Management and Budget, as well as the Finance Department and Bureau of Information Technology, will do the compiling and determine “when and in what manner” agencies will provide their financial information.

Data is required to be updated on a monthly basis at a minimum.

In a letter to Senate President Novelle Francis Jr., Bryan states that agencies divulging information must bear the financial and logistical responsibilities for implementation with oversight by the Bureau of Information Technology.

Moreover, he said, any limitations to information will be subject to the requirements of local law.

“In this regard, the public will still be able to request certain employee information permitted by local law,” Bryan said

V.I. government officials first announced the financial transparency website in April.

Produced by Texas firm Tyler Technologies, the website contains a summary of government payments to individuals, employees and vendors from 2016 to 2019, as well as summaries of department-level expenditures and revenue collection.

The website is a requirement of the Government Transparency Act, passed in 2012, which mandates the government “establish and maintain an official Internet website that is electronically searchable by the public at no cost and that contains a comprehensive database of recipients and expenditures of the territory’s funds.”

©2019 The Virgin Islands Daily News (St. Thomas, VIR). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.