Latibeaudiere

Former Central bank governor Derick Latibeaudiere has broken his silence over his dismissal, criticising Prime Minister Bruce Golding and Finance Minister Audley Shaw for the manner in which his contract was terminated.

In his first extended interview since his October 30 sacking Latibeaudiere said he was hurt because he was dismissed without cause.

"I am bemused that Govern-ment fires me for a contract that Government gave me," Lati-beaudiere said yesterday morning on the radio pro-gramme 'Real Business' on Power 106FM.

"I have been in there for 36 years and seven months and I am told to leave with immediate effect! That is the treatment that you mete out to a criminal."

The inevitable

Days after Latibeaudiere's sacking, Prime Minister Golding told Parliament that the dismissal was inevitable because the Government found unacceptable, embarrassing and repugnant the interpretation and application of certain provisions of the governor's employment contract.

At the time of the dismissal, Golding said the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) governor was entitled to $38 million plus perks. Of this amount, rent and maintenance of the house in which the governor was living accounted for $23.8 million.

But yesterday, Latibeaudiere said at no point did he ever collect a cent in allowances for rent, maintenance or lease. "I did not take it!" Latibeaudiere said.

"I was still anticipating discussions with the minister of finance."

In addition, Latibeaudiere has rejected Golding's claim that hours before his dismissal he wrote to the finance minister demanding that the rental obligations be met or else the matter would head to the court.

According to Latibeaudiere, he gave the letter to the finance minister after he was fired. And Latibeaudiere says the prime minister was wrong when he told Parliament that he rejected efforts to renegotiate the terms of his contract.

The former governor says in several correspondences, one of which was written by the BOJ's general legal counsel on March 10, 2009, Shaw was advised that there was no aversion to discussions in respect of the contractual obligations. But Latibeaudiere says Shaw never initiated the discussions on the issue.

According to Latibeaudiere, the prime minister was not properly informed before he went to Parliament to make his pronounce-ments. But the former governor says Golding is not blame-free.

Cordial relationship

"Given what I considered to be a very cordial relationship with him, having received this 'information' on somebody with such an important post, he should have called me up, as he always did, and asked, 'What is all this I am hearing'?"

Latibeaudiere continued: "I deserve respect! Respect needs to be shown, and if he had called me I would have been able to produce all of this information, which would have indicated that in every instance that he spoke of there were serious mitigating circumstances and a complete lack of understanding as to how things went."

damion.mitchell@gleanerjm.com