Navarro resigns as commissioner of Central Bank

July 06, 2011 10:22 AM

Attorney Nelson Navarro has resigned as member of the Board of Commissioners (RvC) of the Central Bank of Curaçao and St. Maarten (CBSC). According to Navarro, he wants to avoid any possible pretence of conflict of interest.

Navarro was not only an RvC-member of the CBCS but also employed with law office HBN Law, which acts as legal advisor and attorney of the Central Bank.

Overall, Navarro had been an RvC-member of the CBCS less than one month. Although the Curaçao government had recommended him at the beginning of this year, it was only one month ago that he had been sworn in as member. At the time when Navarro was recommended for the position of RvC-member he had his own law firm, Navarro and Cherie, but he has meanwhile returned to the former nest at HBN Law. Since his return to HBN Law, Navarro has held meetings with representatives of the government, the Central Bank and the management of his own law firm on the possibility of the pretence of conflict of interest. During these meetings, Navarro decided it was best to step down now.

With the departure of Navarro, the RvC consists of five members again. Curaçao now has two members left in the RvC besides chairperson Rudsel Sophia, whose candidacy the Council of Ministers approved last week. These two members are jurist and former FK State member Glenn Camelia and Renny Maduro from the UNA. St. Maarten has three members, namely lawyer Jairo Bloem, executive Robbie Ferron and tax advisor Marciela Illidge.

During that one month Navarro had been an RvC-member of the CBCS, the Board only held a meeting once, according to him. During that first and only meeting, no mention was made on the controversy between Central Bank director Emsley Tromp and Ministers of the Schotte-cabinet. “It was an informal meeting in which we discussed our manner of functioning and holding meetings in the future. We had three lawyers in the RvC. We were extremely busy and had to make agreements on our method of work in the future.” The RvC of the CBCS had not held any meetings since that first meeting.

As former politician and as State member of the political party Forsa Kòrsou, Navarro had not been a supporter of a communal Central Bank. He did not have to revise his opinion after his one-month period as an RvC-member of the CBCS. He concludes that the communal Central Bank will be difficult to realize in practice.

5 July 2011