“Corruption is paid by the poor” — Pope Francis
In the wake of the corruption crisis surrounding the Virgin Islands Government, Sen. Kenneth L. Gittens has called for the creation of an ethics commission. On the surface, this might seem like a promising solution to our deeply rooted issues with accountability and integrity. However, creating such a commission distracts from the real problem: the lack of enforcement of existing laws.
We already have a comprehensive set of laws designed to uphold ethical standards and prevent corruption within our government. These laws would be more than sufficient to maintain transparency and accountability if enforced. The real issue is that these laws are routinely ignored, and enforcement is virtually nonexistent. An ethics commission will not change this fundamental problem.
In 2012, the 29th Legislature passed Act 7408, the Virgin Islands Government Transparency Act, which requires all government agencies to post their financial records, contracts, and expenditures online. The law mandates that the government “establish and maintain an official Internet website that is electronically searchable by the public at no cost and contains a comprehensive database of recipients and expenditures of the territory’s funds.” Nearly 12 years later, that law has yet to be implemented.
A critical aspect of maintaining transparency and accountability in our government is the annual submission of financial disclosures by all officers, as mandated by the Virgin Islands Code. Nearly all states require government officials to disclose specific types of personal financial information, including income, business associations, and owned real estate. Simply put, the public has a right to know that their officials are transparent, free from undue influence, and are not underhandedly profiting from their government service. This requirement is designed to prevent conflicts of interest and to ensure that public officials act in the best interests of their constituents. Unfortunately, it appears that this provision is being flatly ignored in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The Government of the Virgin Islands Employee Handbook states that no officer or employee may be directly or indirectly interested in the profits or contracts of any corporation. Furthermore, “the government shall expect the resignation or will dismiss, suspend or take any other appropriate disciplinary action against any employee that violates this order. The good intentions or demonstrable virtue of an officer or employee shall be no defense in any instance where such officer or employee by his conduct brings the integrity of the Government of the Virgin Islands into question.”
The only reason ethics reform is being discussed now is because the federal government has stepped in. Their intervention has highlighted the extent of our failures and forced us to confront issues we have long neglected. It is not an ethics commission or even our local attorney general that has brought these issues to light, but rather the oversight and pressure from an independent auditor. This should signal that our problem is not the lack of ethical guidelines but our inability to police ourselves.
Creating an ethics commission would merely add another layer of bureaucracy without addressing the root causes of the problem. It would give the appearance of action while allowing the same underlying issues to persist. What we need is not more rules but a genuine commitment to enforce the ones we already have. In the recently revealed “Lumbergate” scandal, a government employee was caught allegedly renting a local government facility to the federal government — which sounds like the plot of a really bad movie. Surely, we have sufficient laws on our books to prevent government employees from renting our own property to us. I highly doubt that a local ethics commission would have heard this case. We did not publish, investigate or prosecute this highly questionable contract for years. In fact, in January 2024, we extended this contract for another three years and gave the contractor a raise.
Even in the rare instances when local officials have prosecuted a white-collar case, the judgment did not fit the crime. In January 2021, a WAPA executive was arrested for allegedly orchestrating a $1.8 million, no-bid contract that benefited himself. After his arrest, WAPA management placed that executive on administrative suspension with pay (also known as a paid vacation) for a substantial period, pending the case’s outcome. After the eventual separation from the utility and the subsequent judicial process, the former employee received a proverbial slap on the wrist, negotiating a plea deal that resulted in a $5,000 fine, no jail time, and one-year probation — not a bad trade-off for a $2 million payday.
Finally, establishing an ethics commission would likely involve significant costs and resources (estimated to be $500,000 in the proposed legislation). In a time when our government is already struggling with financial constraints, this is a luxury we cannot afford. Instead, those resources should be directed toward strengthening existing enforcement mechanisms and ensuring that current laws are applied consistently and fairly.
The Virgin Islands has many laws and regulations designed to promote ethical behavior and prevent corruption, yet we find ourselves in our current quagmire. What we need is the political will, institutional capacity, and collective desire to enforce these laws. We need to address these fundamental issues before creating a new commission, or that endeavor will be doomed to fail, just as the existing structures have.
We must face the uncomfortable truth: we have shown that we cannot hold ourselves accountable. The federal government’s involvement has been a necessary wake-up call, and it should prompt us to strengthen our existing institutions rather than create new ones. Only by enforcing the laws we already have on the books can we restore trust in our government and ensure a future free from corruption.
During my tenure as vice chair of the WAPA Board, I and several other board members witnessed sham procurements, questionable contracts, and a litany of conflicts of interest. Despite our collective efforts to address these prohibited practices, we faced significant obstructionism and repeated defenses of unethical behavior. Even with multiple board members in agreement, we were ultimately unsuccessful at changing the organizational culture. This experience highlights a crucial point: if a group of board members cannot bring about reform, it is nearly impossible for a single employee to challenge systemic corruption. I empathize with the rank-and-file employees who routinely witness improper behavior but are helpless to stop it.
A key challenge in the Virgin Islands is the lack of a multi-tiered oversight structure that exists in the states. In the U.S. mainland, local governments are monitored by county authorities, which are in turn overseen by state governments, with federal oversight as a final layer of accountability. This hierarchical structure helps to ensure transparency and integrity at all levels. However, in the Virgin Islands, our governance is significantly flatter. We lack the intermediary oversight provided by counties and states, leaving a gap that often results in unchecked power and reduced accountability. To address this, we must advocate for increased federal oversight to fill this void and provide the necessary checks and balances.
In conclusion, there are better solutions than an ethics commission. My proposed solution is (1) the creation of an independent, elected attorney general’s office, answerable to the people of the Virgin Islands and overseen by Congress, (2) completion of the transparency website — post haste, and (3) compliance with the existing financial disclosure provisions of the Virgin Islands Code. These crucial reforms would ensure impartial oversight, enabling us to hold all public officials accountable and restore public trust in our institutions. However, since the independent attorney general measure recently failed in the Senate, we must consider other resolutions. At the very least, we need a renewed focus on enforcing our existing laws and a commitment to real accountability. It is imperative that we act decisively to rebuild the integrity of our government and truly serve the people of the Virgin Islands. We deserve better.
— Jed JohnHope is President of Generation Next, an organization driven to make meaningful, enduring change in our beloved islands. In addition, JohnHope is a former investment banker and professional engineer. He is a strategy and finance professional with over 20 years of experience in the Energy, Manufacturing, Financial Services, and Oil and Gas sectors. This experience includes significant work within the USVI. Former employers include Morgan Stanley, the Hess Corporation, Liberty Mutual, and ARCADIS. JohnHope is a native Crucian and an alumnus of the Good Hope School, the University of Delaware, London Business School, and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. In his spare time, Jed is an avid chess player, traveler and CrossFit athlete.
