Former CDB President threatens to sue bank for constructive dismissal

Apr 25, 2024 Court Stories, Features / Columnists, News

---

Kaieteur News – Former president of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Hyginus “Gene” Leon is threatening to sue the financial institution if he does not hear from it by May 4 “to negotiate an amicable separation.”

In a legal letter dated April 21, in which he announced his immediate resignation, Leon accused the CDB of conducting an investigation of him that was unconventional, did not follow due process and was beset with “grave procedural irregularities” that fatally tainted it.

“The circumstances of this matter, articulated here and in our previous letters, amount to a constructive dismissal of our clients and should we not hear from you by May 4, 2024 to negotiate an amicable settlement, please take this letter as our client’s pre-action protocol letter to move the court in Barbados or any other jurisdiction more appropriate, to enforce our client’s legal and constitutional rights,” according to the legal letter.

In the three-page letter sent to the CDB by his St. Lucia-based lawyers, Leon said it is his 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.”

In January, it was disclosed that Dr. Leon, had been sent on administrative leave until April this year, as “an ongoing administrative process” continued at the region’s premier financial institution. 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 in February that “there is an internal administrative process involving the president.”

In their letter, the lawyers wrote that “On April 16,2024, 40 hours after our client’s leave expired, our client received a letter of notification of leave extension signed by the chairman of the OAC, but stating that it was from “the Board of Directors of the Bank (currently carrying out the functions of the OAC with respect to the investigation …).

“We are uncertain at this stage of the significance of this as the OAC is not the Board of Directors and the Board of Directors is not the OAC. The meeting on the 16th of April 2024, was another breach of the Bank’s by-laws, the Charter and its policies,” the lawyers wrote. In their letter, the lawyers noted that the Board of Governors has “never responded” to them regarding “our letters of complaint about the manner in which the investigation has been initiated, and allowed to continue.

“Our many letters consistently complained that the Bank has breached and is in violation of its own charter, laws, rules, regulations, and policies as regards the conduct of an investigation pertaining to the elected president”. They wrote that central to the complaint is that their client “has only been informed of the general, barebones nature of the wide complaints levelled against him”.

“These complaints continue to be bare, nonspecific, allegations without condescending to any particulars of the circumstances of the complaints including but not limited to dates, subjects, places or references to the evidence to support the grave and serious allegations made against our client.”

The lawyers wrote that the initiation of the investigations “was and continues to be in violation of Annex 10 of the ICA Procedures for Special Investigations, the Code of Conduct for Directors, and Uniform Principles and Guidelines for investigations and many other policies of the Bank and its Charter”. The lawyers said in their view, the conduct of the investigation has been “unconventional, does not follow due process, and does not adhere to the best practices reflected in the more established Multilateral Development Banks. “All of these complaints have been meticulously set out in our previous letters,” they said, adding “we are therefore of the opinion that the grave procedural irregularities fatally taint the initiation and continuation of the investigation, rendering it null and void ab initio”. The lawyers said that Leon’s “wrongful suspension” ended on April 14 this year and that he endeavoured to return to work the following day “despite the embarrassment of his forced and unlawful leave and the humiliation of not having received any communication prior to the expiration of leave.” (with files from CMC)

---

• bank, constructive, dismissal, Former president of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Hyginus “Gene” Leon

---