Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne Wednesday said concerns
have been raised over the method used to send the President of the Barbados-based
Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Dr. Hyginus “Gene” Leon, on
administrative leave since January.
The CDB has remained mum on the circumstances surrounding the decision to
send the St. Lucian-born economist on administrative leave, with the acting
president Isaac Solomon, confirming at a bank news conference earlier this month
that “there is an internal administrative process involving the president.
“The bank is extremely focus on preserving the independence, confidentiality and
integrity of the process and as you can well appreciate in order for us to maintain
the integrity and confidentiality of the process we are unable to provide any other
details at this time,” Solomon said then.
Prime Minister Browne speaking to reporters here on Wednesday, said “well it is a
process that is taking place and there were concerns about the procedure that led to
that process and at some point, we will have to address the issue of the procedures
and the fact that subordinates within an institution can literally take disciplinary
action against their superior without even consulting with the directors or the
governors of the bank.
“I mean there is something fundamentally flawed about that and you would have
seen two developments, not only the sending on leave or the institution of
disciplinary action against the president but even prior to that when the race for the
candidature was taking place between Leon and Professor Avinash (D. Persaud of
Barbados) I recall that same whistle blower system was activated.”
Prime Minister Browne told reporters by virtue of that ‘they practically would have
eliminated Professor Avinash,
Prime Minister Browne said that the process “could be abused ,” adding “we don’t
know for a fact that it is being abused currently, but we have concerns it may have
been abused and in that case we will have to make some changes.
“But I imagine that the investigation that is taking place will confirm whether or
not the …suspended president is guilty of any malpractice within the bank or if he
would have breached whatever rules and regulations.
“So I think we have to await the outcome of that investigation before we start to
make the adjustments,” Browne said, noting “making too strident arguments about
making adjustments against a system that may not be broken.
“On first blush I think the whole process is somewhat flawed and I am of the view
that even if it may be applicable to lower members of staff, certainly when it
comes to the president there has to be some, at least notification, even out of
decency to the directors and the governors.”
He said maybe perhaps based on the issue “there could be some form of
intervention at the level of the governors.
“So it is a process we will be hopefully reviewing in the future to ensure that we do
not have a system that potentially can be abused and could be weaponised against
future presidents of the bank or senior members of the bank,” Prime Minister
Browne told reporters.
Leon is the sixth president of the regional development finance institution. He was
elected at a special meeting of the CDB Board of Governors held on January 19,
2021, for a five-year term, and assumed office on May 4, 2021.
Leon heads a team of more than 200 employees headquartered in Bridgetown, and
came to the assignment with 35 years of experience in economics, financial policy
development, and executive management, more than 20 of which were spent
working with the Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF). He had
succeeded the Jamaican-born Dr. Warren Smith who retired in 2021 after serving
as president for 10 years.
