The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I FIRMLY believe that the highly respected and soundly run Caribbean Development Bank is heading into serious leadership trouble. What I’ve heard is very troubling.

I am a very seasoned banker who has worked across our region. I know a thing or two about banking in the region. I’ve tried to get information directly from CDB but they have not been forthcoming at all, so please publish this letter as I have a few questions to ask.

Is it true that with the generous helping hand from our Prime Minister Keith Rowley and the other regional Prime Ministers, the newly appointed CDB chairman, Prime Minister Mia Mottley from Barbados, has instructed that the bank appoint her advisor, a British national, as the new president of CDB? Wouldn’t this selection and appointment stink of blatant nepotism and cronyism and taint Barbados?

Can a chairman of CDB select the President of CDB from his/her own previous clients and own pool of personal advisers? And no other Prime Minister can stop it?

What about the lack of qualifications of the individual being imposed on CDB? Is he more qualified than any other Caribbean professional to run the Bank?

The President of CDB is always a person from the Caribbean of high stature, regional intellect and integrity. Does this British advisor even have a Caribbean identity?

Does he know and understand what it takes to achieve successful regional development? Does he have a record of successful projects in the Caribbean?

Has Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and the region not learned anything from the many hotel debacles and the many other failed development projects that die and only leave the lawyers and advisers rich?

There are many other highly qualified bankers and economists with good track records of integrity and success in the region who can run CDB.

There are many options. Why has Rowley failed to nominate any experienced banker, economist, or academic from Trinidad and Tobago?

Trinidad and Tobago has majority stocks and votes in the bank. Where is Prime Minister Rowley’s voice and why would all the region’s Prime Ministers Gonsalves, Browne, Holness who are so usually loud about regional issues suddenly stay silent and surrender so meekly to Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s moves to capture CDB for her adviser?

What is really going on with this coming ugly affair? Something looks very rotten in the region.

Will our Caribbean leaders find the good sense and fortitude to avoid the stench of cronyism and do the right thing to keep the Caribbean in the leadership of the CDB and to maintain its development focus?

The dodging must stop. The Prime Ministers and CDB must start talking. We deserve to know.

CONCERNED CARIBBEAN CITIZEN

Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago,

October 16, 2020.