The Board of Governors of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB or the Bank) on Sunday noted the closure of the internal administrative process involving Dr. Hyginus Leon and confirmed that Dr. Leon has ceased to hold the office of the President of the Bank.
A statement from the CDB said that in accordance with the Agreement Establishing the Caribbean Development Bank, the Vice President (Operations), Isaac Solomon, will continue to exercise the authority and perform the functions of President until a new President is elected.
The process for the election of a new President, it says, has commenced and the Board of Governors has been invited to submit nominations for the position of the President of the Bank by August 26, 2024. It is expected that the election process will end in October 2024.
“CDB, under the direction of its Board of Governors and Directors, and through the leadership of its management and the efforts of its staff, continues to work fully and effectively together with its Member Countries and development partners to advance CDB’s mission of reducing poverty and transforming lives through sustainable and resilient development initiatives”, the statement said.
The CDB statement did nothing to enlighten the public as to exactly why Leon is no longer the President of the CDB. Leon, himself, has also not provided any details.
In February this year, a senior official of the CDB confirmed that Leon was the subject of an administrative process.
Responding to a question from Guardian Media at a virtual news conference in Bridgetown, Barbados, the CDB’s acting president, Solomon, said: “I can confirm that there is an ongoing, 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 further details”.
In April this year, Leon resigned with “immediate effect” from the regional financial institution.
The Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) on April 23rd reported that according to a three-page letter sent to the Bank by his St Lucia-based lawyers, Leon is of the opinion that “he will never be treated fairly” after he had been sent on administrative leave in January.
“It is also evident that the Bank has lost all trust and confidence in our client by the failure of the Board of Governors to prevent the continued violations of its Charter, policies, rules and regulations with regard to its elected President.
“Our client has therefore made the extremely difficult decision to resign his elected position of the President of the Bank with immediate effect”, the letter said, according to CMC.
The lawyers gave the regional financial institution until May 4 “to negotiate unamicable separation” indicating also that their correspondence should be viewed “as our client’s pre-action protocol letter” regarding the entire situation.