Omar Wallace Hodge (2 February 1942 – 20 December 2017) was a
politician
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...
in the
British Virgin Islands
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, song_type = Territorial song
, song = "Oh, Beautiful Virgin Islands"
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. Hodge was the
third longest serving member of the
House of Assembly
House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level.
Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible governme ...
(including its former incarnation as the Legislative Council) after
Lavity Stoutt
Hamilton Lavity Stoutt (7 March 1929 – 14 May 1995) was a British Virgin Islander politician and the first and longest serving Chief Minister of the British Virgin Islands. He won five general elections (1967, 1979, 1986, 1991 and 1995) ...
and
Ralph O'Neal
Ralph Telford O'Neal, OBE (15 December 1933 – 11 November 2019) was a British Virgin Islander politician. He was the longest ever serving elected representative in the British Virgin Islands, and served as Chief Minister (when the office was ...
. Hodge served continuously as the representative for the 6th District from his election in the
1979 general election until his surprise defeat in the
2011 general election. He served a total of . He elected not to contest the
2015 general election.
Hodge was a longstanding member of the
Virgin Islands Party
The Virgin Islands Party (VIP) is a political party in the British Virgin Islands. It is presently led by Acting Premier Natalio Wheatley. It is the oldest active political party in the British Virgin Islands, and it has won more general elect ...
(VIP), and six of the nine general elections which he contested had been as a VIP candidate. Although he started his career as an independent candidate, he subsequently joined the VIP, but later split from them and contested the
1990 general election on behalf of a newly created party, the Independent People's Movement (which was disbanded shortly thereafter), and the
1995 general election on behalf of the
Concerned Citizen's Movement, before later rejoining the VIP.
Hodge twice served as Minister for Natural Resources and Labour (from 1986–1988 and then again from 2007–2011). On each occasion, he was a member of
Cabinet
Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to:
Furniture
* Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers
* Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets
* Filing ...
.
Hodge died on 20 December 2017 after a stroke, at the age of 75.
Controversy
In 2014, Hodge was part of the controversy relating to the greenhouse project at Paraquita Bay. The Auditor General issued a damning report, which indicated that there was no comprehensive budget for the project, which led to requests for supplementary and over-expenditure on approved amounts. The report also noted that the Ministry of Natural Resources and Labour signed a binding contract with a Florida-based company for the greenhouse construction before even preliminary issues had been assessed. The Auditor General grimly noted that not a single crop had been reaped from the greenhouses even though US$6 million had been spent. The report concluded that the project "failed to meet any of the stipulated objectives".
Critically, the auditors discovered a conflict of interest regarding an estimated $757,301.57 in no-bid contracts paid to the locally based firm Mirsand Town Planning and Architects Ltd., a firm owned by Jose and Sandra Camilo, who are brother- and sister-in-law to Omar Hodge, who conceived and oversaw the entire project.
Hodge denied conflicts of interest, saying that the Florida-based construction company selected Mirsand without reference to him.
Electoral history
Offices
Footnotes
1942 births
2017 deaths
British Virgin Islands politicians
Members of the House of Assembly of the British Virgin Islands
Virgin Islands Party politicians
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