Social Commentator and host of Honestly Speaking, Pastor Claude O. Skelton-Cline said stipends raised for board members of statutory bodies need to be reversed, as these are voluntary positions. Photo: Facebook

The Government of the Virgin Islands is supported by a number of statutory bodies that carry out essential services for the territory. Photo: Government of the Virgin Islands

During the May 19, 2026, episode of Honestly Speaking on ZBVI 780 AM, titled ‘Normal is Pathological’, he reflected on his time as Managing Director of the BVI Ports Authority (BVIPA). 

“The purpose of these statutory bodies, these quasi operations away from central government, allows them to conduct business with greater ease and flexibility and to become profit-centred, PROFIT,” Skelton-Cline said, adding that being a board member is an opportunity for people with the requisite skillset in leadership, management or a particular field to offer their services on a “quasi volunteer basis”. 

Boards, he added, would normally meet once a month, and being a board member is not a job one gets paid for. 

'A volunteer job'- Skelton-Cline

Skelton-Cline alleged, “Some of these stuff was hijacked, I must say, under the Virgin Islands Party government in particular, in 2019, it was hijacked,” referring to some statutory boards. 

This, he claimed, led to things getting out of hand, taking on a different look and contour. 

“Being a board member is a volunteer job,” he reiterated. “You used to get a little stipend for your little time, feed you lunch at the board meeting, because it’s really designed for you to lend back your services to your country.”

He added again that it is not a job requiring dressing up and carrying around a briefcase. 

“You ain’t an executive of the statutory body, you are a board [member], you don’t run the organisation. And because there are no clear lines and we keep confusing and conflicting these matters, we end up where we are and then have people with the mindset thinking that you getting a job.”

Skelton-Cline added that the stipends of statutory boards that were raised need to be “reduced back to normal”. 

“Either you’re going to volunteer your time, receive a little stipend for the time, not payment, not compensation for your time.”

The Government of the Virgin Islands is supported by a number of statutory bodies that carry out essential services for the territory.