Statutory Board Pay, Power Under Fire
Commentator Claude Skelton Cline has warned that statutory board members in the BVI have taken on excessive pay and authority, calling for a return to volunteer-minded service and clearer boundaries between governance and management. His comments, made on the Honestly Speaking radio programme, come amid questions over the sudden resignation of former BVI Airports Authority managing director Kurt Menal.
Veteran commentator Claude Skelton Cline has criticised what he describes as growing pay and power among statutory board members in the British Virgin Islands, warning the trend undermines good governance and threatens major public projects. Speaking on his Honestly Speaking radio programme, Skelton Cline said statutory boards were originally intended as quasi-independent bodies that would be overseen by experienced professionals serving largely in a voluntary capacity. "Being a board member is a volunteer job," he said. "You used to get a little stipend for your little time, for your lunch at the board meeting, because it’s really designed for you to lend back your services to your country.
It ain’t no job." Skelton Cline argued the culture shifted during the Virgin Islands Party administration that took office in 2019, with appointments increasingly carrying larger stipends and blurred lines between the board’s governance role and day-to-day executive management. He called for many of those stipends to be scaled back to "normal things that make sense," and insisted directors must remember they do not run the organisations.
The commentator — a former managing director of the BVI Ports Authority — said boards must understand the legal framework that defines their duties. During his tenure at the Ports Authority, he arranged legal orientation sessions for directors to ensure they appreciated fiduciary responsibilities, he said.
Skelton Cline’s remarks were prompted in part by the recent resignation of Kurt Menal as managing director of the BVI Airports Authority. Menal’s departure reportedly came shortly after his contract was extended. Skelton Cline said reports that a board member urged Menal to leave immediately rather than work through his notice period, if true, point to troubling governance failures. "What kind of arrogance and pomposity?
What hubris?" he asked, noting the risk to continuity at a time when the territory is pursuing long-discussed airport redevelopment plans. Officials have not publicly detailed the circumstances of Menal’s resignation, but the episode has prompted public debate about board conduct and leadership transitions.
For BVI residents, the issues raised touch on accountability, taxpayer value and the management of major infrastructure projects. Skelton Cline and others are urging clearer role definitions, routine legal orientation for board members, transparent remuneration policies and more active oversight by responsible ministries to protect public interest and ensure smooth leadership handovers.
Primary source: BVI News