We didn’t have any time to put out bid for $750K PR contract — Fahie

The government’s decision to issue a marketing and public relations contract for which the tender process was waived, has been staunchly defended by Premier Andrew Fahie

Premier Fahie suggested at a recent press briefing that his government had insufficient time to hire the firm, to Maitland Consultancy, that was issued a $750,000 contract to provide “integrated communications support” to rebuild and promote the brand image of the BVI.

With the Commission of Inquiry (COI) now complete and its report pending, the Premier said the country was forced to do damage control to protect its image and its tourism product.

“We trade on our name. Our name is all that we have,” the Premier maintained. “And when persons go after our name internationally like that without waiting for the results, they’re saying that you’re already guilty before the report was done and that those things, sometimes you never come back from them.”

He added: “So with that, I say that we have to make sure the that we continue to recognise those areas of concern that would have destroyed our name and make sure that we employ right away — we didn’t have any time employ right away — not only the public relation part of it, but also the legal part to make sure that we have legal representation.”