Minister for Health and Social Development Honourable Ronnie W. Skelton (AL), left, used the occasion of the unveiling of the ‘Donor’s Wall’ in the lobby of Peebles Hospital on Friday, April 21, 2017 to salute sacked Chairman of the BVI Health Services Authority (BVIHSA) Bishop John I. Cline for his work as Chairman. Photo: VINO/File

Premier and Minister of Finance Dr The Honourable D. Orlando Smith (AL) had demanded the resignation of BVIHSA Chairman Bishop John I. Cline. Photo: VINO/File

This was a salute taken at the request of the Minister for Health and Social Development Honourable Ronnie W. Skelton (AL) as he addressed persons gathered for the unveiling of the “Donor’s Wall” in the lobby of Peebles Hospital.

“Most of all I must recognise my past, my immediate past Chairman….please stand and take a bow,” Hon Skelton said to Mr Cline, who was seated almost hidden in a corner among the audience.

“I am recognising him for the hard work that he hads done in getting us to the point we are at today,” said the Minister, adding that since the new building of Peebles Hospital was opened in December 2014, the Bishop, then Chairman of the Board, “worked 24 hours at this facility so to speak….. you could have called him at any hour, Ayana,” Hon Skelton said to the new Chairperson, Ms Ayana I. Glasgow-Liburd.

Ms Glasgow-Liburd was recently appointed Chair of the Board of the BVIHSA during a sitting of the House of Assembly and it was a motion moved by Hon Skelton. At the hospital’s unveiling ceremony, the Health Minister told Ms Liburd that the shoes she has to fill are not so big but reasonably big. “You can do it, that’s why we voted unanimously yesterday [April 20, 2017] for you to be the Health Services Authority.”

Marching orders

Bishop Cline was given marching orders earlier this year following a fall out with Premier and Minister of Finance Dr The Honourable D. Orlando Smith (AL). Mr Cline had publicly shared his opinion on excerpts of a letter by former legislator Mrs Eileene L. Parsons OBE, in which she, among other things, blasted her National Democratic Party (NDP) elected colleagues for not running the territory in the way expected.

She also strongly recommended that the portfolio of Minister of Finance be removed from Premier Smith and entrusted to Hon Skelton, who served in that position during a previous administration.

The letter was obtained by this news site and published.

Bishop Cline had recommended that Premier Smith listen to that specific recommendation by Mrs Parsons to reassign the portfolio of finance. That angered Premier Smith and, though the matter had nothing to do with Cline’s portfolio at the time, he was asked through Minister Skelton to resign forthwith.

Dr Smith out of touch

Since then Premier Smith’s handle on financial and other matters continues to be questionable to the extent he faced serious embarrassment, with his Financial Secretary providing him inaccurate information which was fed to the public in a hastily rushed address to the territory to respond to Governor John S. Duncan’s invoking of his constitutional powers to demand that monies be taken from the Consolidated Fund and given to the police, and to be used for the hiring of British QCs for the DPP office, Attorney General’s Chambers and to pay for an extra Magistrate.

Premier Smith continues to appear to be sleeping on matters of governance as he has not being able to provide adequate and accurate answers to questions in the House of Assembly. Most recently he also gave inaccurate information to the public at the ground-breaking ceremony for the Social Security Board (SBB) Joe’s Hill Manor Project when he said there were some 100 applicants.

It took the Chairman of the SSB Mr Ian Smith to correct that statement by Premier Smith, noting that thare are actually over 400 applicants to the housing programme.