Republican Sen. Violet Anne Golden, chairperson of the Rules Committee, lashed out Wednesday at the unreasonable and unacceptable conditions the Banking Board placed on its approval of the Virgin Islands Community Bank’s purchase of certain assets of Chase Manhattan Bank’s Virgin Islands Operations.
In a release from her office Golden said, "I am outraged by the anti-business and underhanded tactics of the board. This is obviously a document marked ‘approval’ with such unprecedented and onerous conditions that no legitimate business could accept,"she added.
Golden said the board knew that VICB could not accept these conditions.
"The Turnbull/James administration looks at business and speaks with a forked tongue," Golden said. She pointed out that Gov. Turnbull has in fact declared war on the nay-sayers who are against economic growth. But strong and loud anti-economic growth and job creation continues to come from the Lt. Governor’s mouth and his actions. He consistently takes positions that are diametrically opposite the governor’s. "Is he the fox in the henhouse?" Golden asked, in the release.
This administration continues to send mixed signals to potential investors and the business community, she said. The governor endorses an investment proposal creating jobs and immediately members of his administration oppose the proposal. This is just another signboard with the message, ‘jobs and money not welcome in the Virgin Islands," according to Golden.
The decision of the Banking Board to load the ‘approval’ with unprecedented intrusions into the corporate affairs of a private business and even another government agency is the sheer lunacy of self aggrandizement, the release noted.
Nowhere in Virgin Islands law is the Banking Board given the authority to declare who can and cannot apply for Industrial Development Commission benefits. No ethical business can accept the proposition that a government agency shall have approval of who can sit on its board of directors, Golden said.
Both of these unacceptable intrusions where a part of the Banking Board’s conditions for approval.
After saying that VICB could not seek nor accept IDC benefits, it said that 30 percent of VICB's Board of Directors will have to be approved by the Banking Board. "It didn’t stop there," Golden said, "the Board proceeded to impose a $300,000. Annual fee (tax) on VICB which does not apply to any other bank in the Virgin Islands. This is Outrageous."
"We have a Banking Board out of control when it sets policies so completely investor unfriendly,"Golden continued. If you refuse to create an environment in which a business can prosper, then you are also denying the consumers and public interests the opportunity to make sound economic choices in the market place.
Golden said that she is concerned by the shrinking size of the financial sector in the territory. "Am I to conclude that the Banking Board and the Lieutenant Governor have a plan to deal with unemployment that will result from their misguided decision?"Golden asked. With the Virgin Islands facing a disastrous economic condition, it will be another serious loss of jobs and a reduced access to money markets she pointed out. "It baffles the mind to contemplate the degree of denial that exists in the higher echelons of our government," she said.
The Board’s actions were explained as protecting the people. "How does reducing the scope of our financial sector and creating unemployment protect the people?" she asked. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation protects the people’s money in the bank but protecting the people from their own government appears to be a bigger problem.
"The irony of this tragic decision is that our Banking Board takes a punitive view of VICB when the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation recognized the outstanding achievement of VICB for its investment in the community under the Community Reinvestment Act and the National Small Business Bank of the Year Award. Something is not right when this can happen Golden pointed out.
We talk about becoming investor friendly, but conduct public policy contrary to our words. "I call on Governor Turnbull," Golden concluded, "to take this proverbial bull by the horns before it completely destroys every vestige of our economy and creates a jobless rate that fosters crime and chaos."
