CDB President dropped from press conference panel

Last Updated on Friday, 19 January 2024, 22:22 by Denis Chabrol

The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) on Friday indicated that it has dropped its President, Dr Hyginus ‘Gene’ Leon from its annual press conference which has now been pushed back by almost one month.

In its latest advisory for the now slated February 20, 2024 news conference, the line-up will be Vice-President Operations, Mr Isaac Solomon; Director, Economics Department, Mr Ian Durant, and Director, Projects Department Mrs. Therese Turner Jones.

The updated panel, which omits Dr Leon, came one day after the CDB said the press conference, whose team is “Facilitating Resilient Prosperity” would no longer be held on January 23, 2024.

The Barbados-headquartered financial institution earlier this week said, in response to enquiries about whether the St Lucia-born Economist and other bank officials had been sent on leave, that “Caribbean Development Bank acknowledges an ongoing administrative process involving the President. The Bank will not be making any further comments on this internal matter at this time.”

The Caribbean Media Corporation’s www.cananewsonline.com has since reported that the CDB President has been sent on “administrative leave” until April. The CMC’s unnamed  sources said his computer and tablet have been seized and are questioning how the board of directors could have taken a decision against the bank’s president “without the knowledge of the board of Governors.

The highly regarded St. Lucian-born economist 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.

Last week, Leon was in Guyana holding talks with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) chairman, Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali and CARICOM Secretary General Dr Carla Barnett.

On Thursday, Guyana’s Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo, told reporters that Georgetown would “try to find out a bit more” regarding the announcement by the CDB that it is currently undertaking “an ongoing administrative process” involving its president.

The CDB has however, remained silent regarding reports that senior officials of the region’s premier financial institution had been sent on administrative leave.

Jagdeo told a news conference that while Guyana has not been officially informed of the situation “we are going to try to find out a bit more about what’s going on and from official sources”.

He said he had been unsuccessful in getting information about the situation early on Thursday, adding “I did not find anything in detail about it, you probably have more information than we have at this point in time”.

Jagdeo told reporters “I know the press conference was postponed,” adding “the media tends to get even reports ahead because they deal with leaks”.

CMC had reported Wednesday that it was reliably informed that senior officials of the CDB had been sent on administrative leave, but that its sources could not provide further details at this time.