Concern raised over perceived ‘dual roles’ and ‘permanency’ of AG post

Commentator Claude Skelton Cline has called for major structural reforms to the Attorney General’s office in the BVI, arguing that the current system is flawed and no longer suitable for the territory’s development needs.

Speaking on the April 29 edition of Honestly Speaking, Skelton Cline said the country “has outgrown the mandate of the AG’s office” and questioned how the Attorney General could effectively serve both the governor and the elected government simultaneously.

“Section 95 of your 2007 Constitution outlines for you several offices—Attorney General, Director of Public Prosecutions, Magistrate, etc,” he stated. “The AG reports to the Governor. How do you report to the governor in terms of legal advice and also to the government, when the governor and the government are not — and more often than not — in agreement with each other?”

He continued, “How does the same lawyer advise two different clients who are at odds or at polar opposites at the same time? How could you be the lawyer for both?”

The BVI Constitution currently places the Attorney General within the public service under the governor’s remit. While the Attorney General acts as principal legal adviser to the government, the office is not entirely independent of the Crown.

Skelton Cline argued that this creates a fundamental challenge in governance. “We have a structural and a systemic sin, to use that church term, in the country,” he said. “No matter who you plug in the system… they are subjected to work in a structure that is not conducive for what’s being required.”

The current Attorney General, Dawn Smith, was appointed in October 2020 and later confirmed as the first to serve in a permanent and pensionable role. However, Skelton Cline cautioned against such an arrangement, saying, “When people become permanent and pensionable, it is difficult to move stuff. And that’s not a critique of the occupant—it’s a critique of the system and how we have gone about doing some things.”

He argued for a legal restructuring that would allow Cabinet and the Governor to have separate legal support. “Cabinet should have their own legal advisers. The Governor should have their own legal advisers,” he said.

Skelton Cline insisted the issue lies not in the competency of the staff but in the system itself. “Not because the people there are not good people… but we are forcing them in a system to produce something that the system is not designed to produce,” he said.

The call comes as the Virgin Islands continues to implement governance reform following the 2022 Commission of Inquiry and ongoing constitutional review.