Skelton-Cline’s contract was reduced from $16K to $9K per month- CoI hears
This third contract for $9,000 a month between Skelton-Cline and the Government of the Virgin Islands was signed on November 26, 2020, and ended on September 17, 2021.
His second contract for 144,000 a year saw him collecting a $12,000 salary between September 18, 2019, to August 17, 2020.
The first contract that he secured months after the VIP administration took office was for $98,000 for a six month period, where he was paid $16,333 every month.
Cost-cutting exercise
“The fee for consultancy was going to be $9,000 a month. Do you know why the consultant’s fee was reduced from $12,000 a month to $9,000?” Attorney for the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) Mr Bilal M. Rawat asked Permanent Secretary Dr O’Neal-Morton on Tuesday, October 5, 2021, during her evidence to the Commission.
Dr O'Neal-Morton said the reduced salary was a cost-cutting exercise because of the current financial climate.
“I know that was a decision that was made because it was a financial decision to reduce some of our payments because our income was not very good, so we wanted to reduce our expenditure. We did that in other areas as well; this is not unique to this contract, it was done in other contracts as well,” she said.
The VI, as well as the rest of the world’s finances, has been adversely impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr O’Neal-Morton stated that while she could not recall if she or her staff in the Premier’s Office had any input into the contract details, she was aware that the contract was an extension of the previous one.
During his appearance before the CoI on Monday, Skelton-Cline confirmed that he was no longer in the government’s employ and he had given the government reasons why; however, he did not make the reasons public.
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15 Responses to “Skelton-Cline’s contract was reduced from $16K to $9K per month- CoI hears”
SHELTER.
his words were..." if he ( mr. CSC) doesnt produce..then his contract will be terminated"
yet it was extended....twice...without any forward motion having been achieved. and please dont use covid as the obvious excuse....tell me what he did throughout 2020 to deserve to be paid all of this money wheb we are working class citizens were ignored and u able to feed our families. it is a discrace....you will have to answer to this Mr. Premier in the next 2 years
When it comes to money, in the British Virgin Islands anything is possible.
Question to our current government cabinet leaders: Could you honestly justified the paying of such hefty salaries to CSC for marginal level work done. Honestly, I doubt that you can. This and more are the core reasons why the CoI is currently probing to help untsngle the web of corruption in the British Virgin Islands political arena.
You wan' see work?
The man getting 12 trillion dollars a minute for 'leadership' and what we get for it? A New York Pizza franchise.
No other already employed civil servant could strategize for the salary they already earn? As an advisor, he only needed a stipend for each time he met and gave solid advice that panned out afterwards. Its totally insane.