Above: US Virgin Islands Delegate Donna Christensen

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Legislation to establish a Chief Financial Officer in the US Virgin Islands is an “evolution” for the territory, USVI Delegate Donna Christensen said Thursday during testimony after introducing the bill.

The bill aims to make the government of the Virgin Islands more transparent and more accountable, she said.

HR 3706 seeks “to restore trust by the public that the revenue projections of their government will be made without political consideration,” she said at a hearing Thursday before the Natural Resources Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans and Insular Affairs.

“This is the process utilized by the District of Columbia through its CFO, where there are no longer arguments over the amount of money to spend, just argument on how to spend the money that is available,” she said.

According to the Delegate, the proposal involves a five-year pilot programme for improving transparency and trust in the territory’s budgetary and fiscal practices.

“If Virgin Islanders approve of the process that the bill provides, they can vote to make it permanent through a referendum that is provided for after year four of the CFO’s five-year term,” she said.