St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves on Wednesday said he is not prepared to comment on the ongoing situation regarding the embattled President of the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) Dr Hyginus “Gene” Leon, who has been sent on administrative leave since January.
“There is a process which is ongoing and the Governors of the bank are engaged in that process. And I wouldn’t want to comment while that process is ongoing,” Gonsalves said on the state-owned NBC Radio.
On Tuesday, the Vincentian-born acting CDB president, Isaac Solomon, confirmed that there is “an internal administrative process involving the president.
“The bank is extremely focused 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 told reporters during the bank’s annual news conference.
According to the statement posted on the bank’s website, the Board of Governors is the highest policy-making body of CDB and meets once a year.
It said all of the powers of CDB are in the hands of the Board of Governors, which can delegate its powers to the Board of Directors except on certain matters such as the admission of new members, change in capital stock, election of directors and the president as well as an amendment of the Charter and the termination of the operations of CDB.
Leon, the highly regarded St Lucian-born economist, 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.
CMC has been reliably informed that the Board of Governors met last Monday and that ‘some members expressed concern no acting appointments were made.
“We did not appoint him, not sure who did,” said a source familiar with the meeting with regards to the acting appointment of Solomon.
Gonsalves told radio listeners that his only comment now would be that he would like the CDB to continue its work, saying “the CDB is an organisation with hundreds of persons working, with good quality professionals and the work continues”.
Last month, leaders of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) had expressed their “utter disappointment and shock” at the treatment being meted out to the embattled CDB president, who is reported to have been sent on administrative leave until April this year.
