Fearless to fire! All boards should resign when new gov’t gets elected
Declaring his fearlessness for firing people, Opposition legislator Mark Vanterpool said he believes all members of politically appointed boards should hand in their resignations whenever a new government enters office.
Vanterpool made that statement in the House of Assembly while recalling a recent appearance he had before the Commission of Inquiry (COI).
The COI had asked him why the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) criticised him for not listening to the BVI Ports Authority (BVIPA) board’s recommendations during the time of the cruise pier project when he was Works Minister.
Vanterpool told the House he was being ‘honourable’ by deciding not to give a political response to the COI. He said his response would have been to explain that the BVIPA board was appointed by a previous Virgin Islands Party (VIP) administration who did not want him to achieve what his government had mandated him to do.
He described the persons that comprised those boards as stalwarts of the VIP – including his own Permanent Secretary who subsequently ran for office.
“I must go listen to the Ports Authority Board who I met there, who was appointed by the Virgin Islands Party government? And nothing is wrong with that. In fact, if something is wrong with it, yes, I totally agree with this [sitting] government — when you get in, all boards [should] hand in your resignations,” Vanterpool declared.
I got board members fired
The legislator said he felt this was only right since the established board would be carrying out the previous government’s policy.
“I am being told that I should have listened to the Public Accounts Committee who criticised my work on the port. That’s the best project [that] happened to this Virgin Islands and it’s going to be the best for the next hundred years,” Vanterpool said.
“You are telling me that I must honour that board’s [recommendations] and don’t carry out my government’s policy? But eventually I got them all dismissed,” Vanterpool continued.
“They were doing their job at the time, nothing was wrong with them, they are our people. But they [were] not going to carry out my policy,” the former Works Minister explained.
“So, when you got anybody in your way who’s blocking your policy that you’re given instructions from your government [to execute], get them out of the way,” he insisted.
Vanterpool said he was not afraid to say this since he had already done it.
“Just like Donald Trump, I have no problem firing,” he added.
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He is the one who needs to resign
vip stupid stupid look mark telling it like it is. Them does got ndp people on boards and everything and got they own out here swimming. Lmfao
The Honourable representative is admitting to political victimization and therein lies the problem. Not everyone is going to agree with you 100% of the time, but a quality of good leadership is learning to/knowing how to work with persons on both sides of the aisle Sir.
Another wind bag opens his mouth. Yes all the Boards need to resign so the new Board members will do the bidding and stealing for the new ministers. V** sit the f**k down and count the money you stole. Corruption is so rampant in the BVI it has become a way of life. The politicians can no longer see right from wrong. The whole system needs to be dismantled and redone with fresh faces and a system of corruption = prison.
Boards should not be motivated by what their party wants, but what is best for the entity that they are governing. There should be objective mandates and goals to achieve that are for the good/benefit of the public. At the end of the day, a statutory body is doing the work delegated to it by the line Ministry to perform a specific function for the public. Constant changing of board members hinders progress and key projects always have cost overruns because of this one track political mindset. All board performance should be measured.
Board members need to be competent people and not gold diggers. They have to read the governing laws and regulations of the organization and be guided by them and not base decisions on their opinions. They know nothing about good governance. Furthermore all board members receive training so they could understand their fiduciary duty before taking up the position.
I agree that some of them need to resign. Some have full time jobs but on 2 and 3 boards, hardly at the full time job but receive full pay. First ever I see board members like these.
This is a great example of why we need to stop this political BS and start working for the people . When you have people only doing things for “party” instead of the VI as a whole you’ll always have people disregarding advice since it’s not form “their people”. Hopefully one day the VI gets wiser.
EXACTLY… agree 1000%
Mark can be silent for months, but when he speaks he talk facts. Even tho I know you are tired of politics. Thanks for telling it like it is. Action man!
I am surprised anyone can understand a word he says when he gets going!
I might not agree with his methods but he speaks truth, ministers for the most part appoints their cronies and supporter’s to boards there should be an evaluation of members performance and that should be used to decide if they will/should be re-appointed again.
Politicians should be fired when they can’t deliver what they promised to the populace and I don’t mean 4 yrs I mean forthwith
Aren’t many of those boards supposed to be politically independent?
Boards could never be politically independent if they are appointed by politicians.
It goes without saying, until boards are appointed through a transparent process of interviewing and based on qualifications, they will never be independent.
The operative words are “supposed to be”. That is true but there needs to be a different selection process. If the governor is appointing board members at the recommendation of someone they should be interviewed and a proper selection done. There is no way in hell some of those board members would have passed that interview to be on any board.
Boards could never be politically independent if they are appointed by politicians.
It goes without saying, until boards are appointed through a transparent process of interviewing and based on qualifications, they will never be independent.
And if the boards do that the general public should turn around and boycott every d@46 business you have in return. I am about sick of your …………..
This is call political bullying. Why should you take bread out of people mouth because they don’t support your party? Anybody appointed to a board should be done in such a way that there is no political bias and whoever is there should be able to advise or work any party. I am disappointed in this minister for his blatant disrespectful remarks in the house.
hear how this man boasting about putting people out of bread and he is not even a born here (tortolian) person. only in Tortola can this s**t happen
He may not be born here, but he surely give back to this community. What have you done? Blog!