Claude Skelton Cline
Opposition Leader Myron Walwyn said the non-renewal of Claude Skelton Cline’s contract as Managing Director of the BVI Ports Authority fractured the previously governing National Democratic Party’s (NDP) Cabinet.
Speaking during a recent interview, Walwyn explained that divisions among ministers surfaced when the contract came up for approval.
“I think there was a fracture, I think it’s fair to say that there was a fracture there because Mr Skelton Cline’s contract needed to come to Cabinet for approval… I didn’t support his renewal. And he knew that,” Walwyn said.
Walwyn described himself as deliberate in his decisions, adding that he never makes them lightly. “I don’t make rash decisions. I don’t make emotional decisions. And if I make a decision, it means that I’ve covered the bases and I’m satisfied in my mind that I can or cannot support something. I didn’t support it. Our relationship has not been the same since then,” he asserted.
The renewal of Skelton Cline’s contract became one of the most contentious issues within the government at the time. His original three-year term as Ports Authority boss ended in 2015, but legal battles followed after Cabinet opted not to renew it. In 2016, a court granted him leave to challenge the decision, ruling that there were legitimate expectations for renewal and questioning the fairness of Cabinet’s actions.
Although Skelton Cline later pursued further challenges, his case was dismissed in 2019. The matter returned to public attention during the 2021 Commission of Inquiry, which examined payments made before his contracts were formally signed and raised concerns about how the agreements were monitored.
Walwyn said the political fallout from the contract contributed to wider fractures in the NDP. While he declined to reveal the specific reasons for his opposition to Skelton Cline’s reappointment, he stressed that his decision was based on what he believed to be in the territory’s best interest.
“If you have to make decisions in the interest of the country or stand alone on your decisions, I’m one who’s never afraid of doing that. But again, that’s water under the bridge. It is what it is,” he explained.
The dispute remains a reference point in discussions about the NDP’s internal split in the run-up to the 2019 general election, which saw the party lose power after nearly a decade in office.
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