The Cabinet is staggering the release of the membership lists of Government-appointed boards because ministries have encountered delays in confirming that board members will serve.

Normally, the Government announces the members of its boards on the first Friday of the new year, since terms run from January 1 to December 31 and the old boards cannot legally serve after their term expires.

Government printed the membership lists of 29 of this year's boards in its official notices on Tuesday. Acting Cabinet Secretary Warren Jones said that the "tedious" process of confirming memberships was coming to a conclusion and that the remainder of the boards - there are more than 100 in all - would be announced in the next two weeks.

Government was heavily criticised last year for announcing the memberships of its boards more than two months late.

Several key boards, including the Tourism Board, the Human Rights Commission and the Bermuda College Board of Governors, were among the first to be announced this year. Most of the boards were left unchanged or only slightly modified, although some underwent major shake-ups.

The Broadcasting Commission underwent the most substantial changes of all the boards announced so far. Five of its seven members - excluding representatives from the Ministry of Telecommunications - left the board, including the chair, Tim Marshall. They were replaced by four new members, and the new chair is Murray Brown.

Three members of the Bermuda College Board of Governors and the Board of Education traded places: Jan Spiering, who chaired the College's Board of Governors, is now the deputy chair of the Board of Education. Quinton Butterfield also migrated with Mr. Spiering, while Larry Mussenden, who was on the Board of Education, is now the deputy chair of the Board of Governors.

Neither Mr. Spiering, Mr. Butterfield or Mr. Mussenden were available for comment last night.

Four members left CedarBridge Academy's Board of Governors, including Calvin Blankendal, Lisa Harvey-Smith, Daryl Walwyn and Marc Telemaque. They have been replaced by Ernestine DeGraff, Zane Hurst, Julia Saltus and Tina Woods.

Mr. Telemaque, who was also the chair of the Human Rights Commission (HRC), had to step down from those posts when he became the Permanent Secretary of Transport in August. He was replaced as chair of the HRC by Mary Anne Scott.

According to one Government board member, members usually step aside after two or three years of service. Mr. Blankendal, who was a member of CedarBridge's Board of Governors, said he stepped down after one year to make time for other activities.

Hotelier Billy Griffith is no longer a member of two boards that were announced yesterday - Bermuda College's Board of Governors and the Tourism Board. Mr. Griffith also stepped down as president of the Bermuda Hotel Association this year. He was replaced by Norman Mastalir, who also joined the Tourism Board.

Carl Paiva, the president of C-Travel, American Airlines manager Carole DeCouto, George Scott, the president of the company which would provide the GPS tracking system for taxis, and Esan Frederick, the manager of the White Sands Hotel, also left the Tourism Board. They were replaced by Karen Hendrickson, a vice president and senior relationship manager of personal financial services at the Bank of Bermuda; and Larry Jacobs of the Ministry of Transport, in addition to Mr. Mastalir.

The only other chairs to be replaced were PLP backbencher Dale Butler, whose chair position on the Bermuda National Library Committee was given to Government senator Patrice Parris, and Barclay Simmons, the former chairman of the Telecommunications Commission, who was replaced by William Francis.