Omar Wallace Hodge is a veteran politician in the British Virgin Islands. Hodge is the third longest serving member of the House of Assembly (including its former incarnation as the Legislative Council) after Lavity Stoutt and Ralph O'Neal. 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 7009100938960000000♠31 years, 360 days. He elected not to contest the 2015 general election and is presumed retired.
Hodge is a longstanding member of the Virgin Islands Party (VIP), and six of the nine general elections which he has contested have been as a VIP candidate. Although he started his career as an independent candidate, he subsequently joined the VIP, but later split from them 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 Concern Citizen's Movement, before later rejoining the VIP.
Hodge has 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.
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.