-Legislature Holding Back Documents From the Public
by Aleek Thomas
“A joint federal and local audit exposed $6.9 million of mismanaged, poorly spent and unaccounted for money in the 26th, 27th, 28th and 29th Legislatures.”
In this audit, federal agents searched through the Legislature’s records to come to this conclusion. The joint audit states, “Our scope included a review of activities and transactions that occurred during the calendar year 2005 to 2010.” They looked at travel records, travel advances, and other expenditures.
The Virgin Islands Daily News felt that these records should be released to the public and sent in four requests to the 29th Legislature’s Senate President Ronald Russell, which were spurred by the November 11th release of the audit’s findings. Russell never responded to the requests.
The Daily News decided to take the issue to court, and they won the case, resulting in a stipulated order that stated, “The Legislature would release five years’ worth of financial records to the Daily News.”
According to the article, “So far, the Legislature has provided only a fraction of those records, leaving in question its compliance with the Oct. 25 agreement.” The agreement was that the Legislature would release all of the records for the last five years, but they have provided almost no records before 2009.
To me, this seems like an attempt to hide something from the public. Why would they agree to release the records for five years, and then withhold them? They could be attempting to protect one of the senators. We will never know until we see these missing records.
I feel that The Daily News should take the Legislature to court once again in order to receive the missing records, because the public has the right to know where the federal tax money is going. Sending letters to the Legislature did not work, so it seemed like taking legal action is going to be the only way to get results.
Also, if there is any justice that needs to be served for obstruction of the law, then it should be taken. For example, during the audit, the office of Senator Alvin Williams was raided. Later on in November 2012, after the records were released, he was indicted on racketeering and bribery charges. http://virginislandsdailynews.com/news/alvin-williams-jr-s-senate-staff-alvin-williams-jr-34-sen-alvin-williams-jr-charged-with-bribery-mail-fraud-and-wire-fraud-1.1401031
I was shocked when I heard about this because I never would think that a public official would abuse their position and commit a crime like this. I believe that he knew that his conviction was going to be inevitable, so he decided not to run for office again.
The public made their voice heard this election by voting out three incumbent senators. It was the right thing to do because you cannot continue to support those you cannot trust. That solves the issue when it comes to our past leaders doing wrong, but one issue still remains.
There are still about four years of documents missing. I feel that The Virgin Islands Daily News should take the Legislature back to court for not holding up to their agreement.