Statutory boards losing top talent due to COI rules
New rules introduced following the Commission of Inquiry (COI) are reportedly discouraging qualified Virgin Islanders from serving on statutory boards, raising concerns about the government’s ability to attract the best people to these important institutions.
That concern was raised by Honestly Speaking talk show host Claude Skelton Cline, who said he has been informed that government officials are struggling to recruit suitable chairpersons and board members.
“The people who are having to fill out applications, do interviews, declaring their own interests, and are constantly bombarded with items that are perceived to be conflicts of interest. And therefore, the best of the people of the Virgin Islands are simply not applying to be on any board,” Skelton Cline stated.
He questioned the consequences of this situation, arguing that statutory bodies are being deprived of valuable expertise from professionals who would otherwise volunteer their services.
“We’re not getting the best persons to serve, to lend their expertise in a volunteer basis so as to be the scaffolding that helps us support, reinforce, and strengthen these statutory bodies,” he explained.
UK’s cures are our cures
Skelton Cline blamed the situation on reforms introduced following the COI, arguing that some requirements imposed under the United Kingdom’s oversight do not adequately reflect the realities of the BVI.
“The UK’s cures are not our cures. Our story and London’s story are two different stories. We have to sort out our own stuff. We have to sort out our own history. We have to tell our own story,” he declared.
He further argued that the territory needs policies and procedures tailored to its society rather than adopting systems that may work elsewhere.
“What the United Kingdom has done, on some of these matters, is superimposed rules and regulations upon us that does not fit. The culture does not fit the shoe, the footprint that we need to function in this society,” he stated.
Skelton Cline called for serious reforms and, where necessary, the repeal of certain rules governing procurement and other public-sector procedures.
“We’re not getting the best and the brightest of minds. People are not subjecting themselves to what has been handed down to us, in some cases, under duress,” he argued.
He maintained that the territory must address the underlying problems created by some of the post-COI reforms rather than continuing to deal only with their consequences.
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By ‘top talent’, you mean the same set of people on every Board, so long as they suit your narrative?
So sick of your opinions – everyone thought you have is about benefitting yourself, and those around you.
How about, for once in your life, putting Country first with sincere intentions!
Claude… let me stop you right there… this is not true. We have the best minds applying but the Government is playing the victimization game. they pass over all the good applicants and still put their cronies on the Boards. the good applicants just get fed up and decide not to apply to any more ads.
Is he looking for another government highly paid non job like the ones he had in the past.
That jackass again they need to strip you and your uncle of that title pastor and bishop two fools that don’t know the meaning of their title.
believer YOU ARE SOUNDING MOER OF A JACK DONKEY THAN THOSE TWO YOU ARE REFERENCING
Good Let them go
Claude: the COI has cause the permanent secretaries to not give me any contracts. I need the money, my church ain’t bringing in enough collection.
WEALL KKOW WHO THE DRY SNITCH WAS , WHO BEGGED JASPERT FOR THE COI AND YOU FULLY WELL KNOW IF HIS HANDS WERE CLEAN WE WON’T HAVE BEEN IN THIS SH*T , ASK WIGGIE WHO HAS ALL THE INFO ON HIS HERO , THE SAME ONE HE DOES HOLLER OUT FREE ABOUT * FREE THE DREW *, AND HOW HE WAS SET UP , EVEN AFTEF HE WAS CAUGHT ON TAPE BRAGGING ” THIS ISN’T MAH FURST RODEO ” .
Is our news really just what one Cline says into a microphone after another?
There is REAL news going on in these islands and all we get is, ‘this discredited Chicago guy says xyz’ and this ‘fake bishop says ABC’.
Gangster business, murders, dirty money flows, deep pocket politicians skilled in getting nothing done, environmental slaughter, infrastructure insecurity, etc etc
And all we get every day is some crazy Cline comment, like they are the intelligent BVIslanders?
We have plenty of great brains but we don’t hear from them unnecessarily. Can we just stick to reporting news and not this pointless personality influencing?
Thank you.