The board of gov­er­nors of the Bar­ba­dos-based Caribbean De­vel­op­ment Bank (CDB) opened a two-day meet­ing here over­shad­owed by the con­tro­ver­sial res­ig­na­tion of its pres­i­dent Dr. Hy­gi­nus “Gene” Leon, and a warn­ing that the bank finds it­self at a cross­road.

In his ad­dress to the open­ing cer­e­mo­ny, the tem­po­rary al­ter­nate gov­er­nor for Italy, Si­mone Al­ber­to Pla­ta­nia, speak­ing on be­half of CDB’s non-re­gion­al mem­bers, said this year has been a chal­leng­ing one for the re­gion’s pre­mier fi­nan­cial in­sti­tu­tion.

“To­day, we find the bank at a cross­roads. As gov­er­nors of this bank, we are called up­on to take key de­ci­sions to en­sure that the CDB grows stronger from this ex­pe­ri­ence.

“We note the ex­ter­nal, in­de­pen­dent in­ves­ti­ga­tor has con­clud­ed its in­ves­ti­ga­tion of the Pres­i­dent. We be­lieve that a mul­ti­lat­er­al de­vel­op­ment bank that works to im­prove the liv­ing con­di­tions of its re­cip­i­ents must lead by ex­am­ple. We ex­pect the high­est stan­dards for in­tegri­ty, ethics, and trans­paren­cy,” he said.

The Ital­ian gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tive said that lessons will be learned in the af­ter­math, adding “go­ing for­ward, we should re­view arrange­ments for strong gov­er­nance and look at pro­ce­dures and process.

“We should draw on best prac­tice from oth­er de­vel­op­ment banks to en­sure that the CDB is best in class. In this way, we have to main­tain con­fi­dence in strong gov­er­nance, which un­der­pins the cred­it rat­ing of the bank and its abil­i­ty to pro­vide con­ces­sion­al sup­port to its Caribbean mem­bers.

“The pop­u­la­tions of the Caribbean de­serve a Bank that will help trans­form the re­gion and that will de­vote its en­er­gy to the well­be­ing and pros­per­i­ty of its peo­ple,” Pla­ta­nia added.