Brent Pin­heiro

brent.pin­heiro@guardian.co.tt

Caribbean Air­lines (CAL) has de­nied claims that CEO Garvin Med­era has been sent on ad­min­is­tra­tive leave. On Wednes­day a mes­sage be­gan cir­cu­lat­ing on­line ti­tled “Caribbean Air­lines An­nounces Lead­er­ship Tran­si­tion and Sta­bil­i­ty and Growth Strat­e­gy”.

The mes­sage claimed that Med­era had been “placed on ad­min­is­tra­tive leave, ef­fec­tive im­me­di­ate­ly, pend­ing the out­come of an in­ter­nal re­view.”

The mes­sage al­so claimed the air­line’s Chief Op­er­at­ing Of­fi­cer Nir­mala Ra­mai would take over as act­ing CEO un­til fur­ther no­tice.

How­ev­er, in a re­lease CAL sought to de­bunk the claims, say­ing the in­for­ma­tion cir­cu­lat­ing was “false”. It fur­ther added that the in­for­ma­tion in the re­lease did not come from ei­ther Caribbean Air­lines or any oth­er “au­tho­rised source”. Med­era has been the CEO of Caribbean Air­lines since Oc­to­ber 10th, 2017.

On Au­gust 12th, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is­sued an ul­ti­ma­tum to the air­line’s man­age­ment – ‘sort out the mess’ in two years or find a new job. Since then, there’s been sev­er­al changes to the com­pa­ny’s up­per man­age­ment. This in­clud­ed Chief Fi­nan­cial Of­fi­cer Varuna Kuars­ingh be­ing sent on leave by the new CAL board, head­ed by Rey­na Kow­lessar.