The Home Journal

The present financial crisis in the Department of Public Works again emphasizes the fact that the Department of Interior in Washington exercises too much control over local affairs, and that it is doing a lousy job in the process.

Shouldn't it be left up to the Governor, the legislature and other territorial officials to determine how much money should be given to the Public Works and other departments for their efficient operation? But no, even after the legislature appropriates funds for departmental operations, and the Governor approves the money bills they have to be forwarded to Washington for approval or disapproval. In the case of the Public Works Department, Interior officials reduced the $896,000 budget voted by the legislature by a quarter of a million dollars. If they did not realize that this severe reduction would cripple the department then they have even less intelligence than we give them credit for.

The blame must also be shared by the administration. This is not the first time that the government has run into a financial crisis. Last year, they cut so much money from the Health Department's budget that clinics in Frederiksted and St. John, and scores of employees were about to be sacrificed. Until now, we had never believed it possible for government to be so inefficient, incompetent and fumbling. There is a crisis every day. Compare the confusion and incompetence of this administration and the last with the rather smooth and ultra efficient way in which the government clicked during the administrations of Governor de Castro. If a financial crisis threatened the problem was handled with such speed, and efficiency that nobody was alarmed, and the firing of personnel was never even thought about. Of course, at that time the same islanders who, it was said, could not run their own affairs, were completely in charge of governmental operations.

We hope that the administration straighten out this present mess, without penalizing innocent employees, and that this nonsense does not happen again. This is an administration of crises!