“How is it that we have once again employed a gentleman from St Lucia to be head of the BVI Airports Authority? Tell me how this is possible again,“ Skelton Cline said on his Honestly Speaking radio show yesterday.

The host, who said he was disappointed and disgusted at the reported move, noted that he was against the former government for making similar decisions of hiring foreign nationals for key posts in the territory.

“It causes my spirit to boil when I see this happening over and over and over and over again. It is unacceptable,” the clergyman said.

“You mean to tell me that we don’t have no locals that’s qualified to be the head of the BVI Airports Authority?” Skelton Cline then asked.

Do some headhunting

He dismissed as ‘nonsense’, any assertion that the post was advertised for months without receiving any applications from locals.

“When you have these key positions in your country, you don’t wait for locals to apply, you do some headhunting,” Skelton Cline insisted.

He chided the BVI Airports Authority board for their role in the process and suggested that recruiters should seek out locals from amongst their own for such posts to ensure that they get into the process and be the first in line for key positions.

Describing himself as an honest broker in the matter, Skelton Cline said he loves his St Lucian ‘brothers and sisters’, but questioned how locals continued to make the same fumbles and to drop the proverbial ball on the issue of recruitment.

Skelton Cline said he was certain that there are locals to fill the position, adding that he knows this because he has done his own research.

“Here we are, exporting more money out of the country,” he said.

The host said when he was Managing Director of the BVI Ports Authority, he did not wait for persons to apply for vacancies.

“There is something called headhunting. Who are the best persons to fit this post? Make them aware, cause them to apply, let them go through whatever your process is … and at the end, you have to ensure that your people hold these posts,” he stated.

“Do you think that I could go to St Lucia and be the head of the Airports Authority?”

Skelton Cline further argued that there are some posts, such as the airport Managing Director, that have national security implications.

Meanwhile, even though there has been no official announcement by government about the new appointment so far, Skelton Cline said he could not let the government off the hook for the apparent blunder.