That the Council of Ministers decided to "follow up" on the 15 recommendations of the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) audit at the Central Bank of Curaçao and St. Maarten (CBCS) is in principle good news (see Tuesday paper). The – formerly Antillean – shared monetary authority and financial sector supervisor had been embroiled in controversy practically since the constitutional changes per 10-10-10 following a war of words between Curaçao's first cabinet led by then-Prime Minister Gerrit Schotte and CBCS President-Director Emsley Tromp, with serious public allegations back and forth.
This conflict is also what ultimately led to a probe into the functioning of CBCS. The bond loan to St. Maarten Harbour Holding Company was mentioned specifically; among other reasons, because the decision to provide an underwriting facility had been neither presented to the bank's investment committee nor taken up in a formal management meeting until after the fact,
Important for the future is that the two governments as sole owners of CBCS have resolved to implement the report's findings based on a cooperation protocol. If doing so contributes to ending the turbulence surrounding this essential, powerful institution, which above all else requires stability and a high level of trust locally as well as internationally, that certainly would be a welcome development.
It's actually long overdue that the two countries in the monetary union see eye-to-eye regarding the Central Bank, because up to now they hadn't even been able to agree on a joint seventh Supervisory Board member in addition to their three each. This is why Robert Pietersz was appointed by the Dutch Caribbean Court of Justice.
Moreover, Curaçao's original board members had wanted nothing to do with Tromp anymore, prompting a standoff between them and those representing St. Maarten. Thankfully, only one of these early Curaçao board members remains and he recently participated in a meeting that included the President-Director, so it at least appears that confidence crisis is pretty much over.
The time has truly come to move on.
