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by pltm
(PLTM) - The former BVI Ports Authority (BVIPA) Managing Director, Claude Skelton-Cline, who sought legal recourse in 2016 after Cabinet decided not to renew his contract, blasted the announcement that a St. Lucian national is the new Managing Director at BVIPA.
While speaking on his radio show “Honestly Speaking” on September 11, Skelton-Cline, who is currently awaiting judgment in the legal matter, complained that there is a pattern of non-nationals being given top positions in the Territory.
According to Skelton-Cline, two local persons applied for the job, but were not selected.
“How so many of our posts that were once held by BVIslanders are no longer held by BVIslanders. The latest being the gentleman from St. Lucia who is now Managing Director of the BVI Ports Authority. After we’ve had two locals in the persons of John Samuels and Kevin OJ Smith, who applied for this post, and it also raises the question of some of the people who were sitting on some of these Boards. What is it about us that we continue to not trust in each other, the character, the competencies of each other.”
The talk show host said that even if the decision was made by the Board, it was ratified in Cabinet.
“Here again the BVI Ports Authority Managing Director is not in our hands; so of all us that exist in this Territory, none of us qualify to give leadership at the BVI Ports Authority. At the prison, another St. Lucian gentleman has been imported to head the prison. How is it again under this particular government that we’re allowing, that we continue to see the disillusion, the degradation, the marginalization of BVIslanders in key posts. In all of the posts that pay any reasonable compensation,” Skelton-Cline complained.
He also called on the people of the Territory to speak out on what he described as marginalization.
“I am appealing to the people, I am saying to us, I am saying to you -- are you satisfied with being marginalized? Are you satisfied with becoming a second class citizen in your own country? Are you satisfied with the behavior of this government or any other government who would seek to put you in the back of the bus, when you are responsible for putting them in the seat. How do we continue on this path?”
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