Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne on Wednesday said concerns have been raised about 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.
Mr. 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.
Mr. Leon heads a team of more than 200 employees headquartered in Bridgetown, Barbados 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).
