approached the supervisory board of CBCS1243 – as well as by the president himself. In October 2012, and after a request of the Curaçao Parliament, the Court of Audit, ARC, published its report on some of the issues raised.1244 Some of the allegations appear to have been sufficiently countered, but the report has not been able to answer all of Parliament’s questions. This is in part because, according to ARC, it was not given access to all relevant documents, and ‘for the time being’ decided not to use its authority to call the police for assistance.1245 Also, CBCS in turn indicates it did not have a chance to give its opinion on the draft.1246 (Also refer to Integrity, below.) Meanwhile, because Curaçao and Sint Maarten could not agree on the seventh member of the Bank’s supervisory board, it took more than a year to complete it, and only after taking recourse to an ‘emergency procedure’ which requires the president of the Joint Court of Justice to (temporarily) appoint someone if the governments fail to do so.1247 At the time of writing, the supervisory board has only once met as a full board. When it did, the members appointed at the proposal of Sint Maarten were reportedly ‘bombarded with eggs’ by supporters of one of Curaçao’s parties in government.1248 Three of the members, all from Curaçao, do not recognise the appointment of the seventh member as lawful. They refuse to attend the meetings of the supervisory board and do not acknowledge its decisions.1249 Moreover, according to an expert interviewed, the current composition of the supervisory board is not sufficiently balanced, and contains too few members with relevant expertise in finance and economics, which hampers the effectiveness of its supervision of the acts of the board of executive directors. Whether and to what extent these strained relations imply CBCS’s operational independence as supervisor of the financial sector is in jeopardy is unknown. CFATF reports that government does not give any operational direction and/or guidance to CBCS.1250 Neither have there been documented cases of CBCS’s staff engaging in activities that could compromise their operational independence. The assessment did return one mention of possible undue influence of the financial sector several years ago, which was also mentioned by the public prosecutor in a recent Dutch court case. In that case, it was suggested in formal declarations to the public prosecutor that the Bank has not always been stringent in its supervision and, in that specific case, was even remarkably lenient when issuing a Bank permit.1251 The Bank issued a press statement firmly refuting the insinuations,1252 whereas three of the seven members of the supervisory board did find reason for a thorough financial forensic investigation.1253 However, as yet such an investigation has not been conducted, and the issue and claims remain unsubstantiated. Over the last couple of years, GCB’s operational independence has been called into question to a point where, according to one observer interviewed, ‘at this moment the casino sector determines what happens within its supervisor GCB’.1254 Developments do raise some legitimate questions. Because one board member reached his pension, two members put forward at the recommendation 1243
See Launching inquiry w.r.t. developments Central Bank of Curaçao and Sint Maarten, (Instelling onderzoek m.b.t. ontwikkelingen rond de Centrale Bank van Curaçao en Sint Maarten), letter of the Prime Minster a.i., Mr. Ch. Cooper, to CBCS’ Supervisory Board, 31 May 2011. 1244 ARC, October 2012a. 1245 ARC, October 2012a: 4. 1246 Also refer to ARC, October 2012a, p.38. 1247 Bank Charter, Article 25. 1248 See, for example, ‘Vote supervisory board CBCS is 4/3’ (Stemverhouding RvC CBCS is 4/3), 24 April 2012 via www.kkcuracao.com [accessed 24 February 2013]. 1249 See, for example, ‘Camelia asks questions to researchers PwC’ (Camelia stelt vragen aan onderzoekers PwC), Amigoe, 29 May 2013. 1250 CFATF, June 2012: 224. 1251 On this case, see, for example, Judgment of 25 May 2012, District Court of Arnhem, LJN BW6504; ‘Central Bank in defense against PP Arnhem’ (Centrale Bank in verdediging tegen OM Arnhem), 10 April 2012 via www.rnw.nl [accessed 7 June 2013]. 1252 Official press statement of the Bank, Press statement (Persbericht) 2012-004, 10 April 2012. 1253 See, for example, ‘Bank president Emsley Tromp reviewed’ (Bank President Emsley Tromp doorgelicht), De Volkskrant, 16 June 2012, via www.volkskrant.nl [accessed 2 June 2013]. 1254 Also refer to KLPD, Crime analysis of Curaçao 2008 (Criminaliteitsbeeldanalyse Curaçao 2008) (Zoetermeer: Korps Landelijke Politiediensten, Dienst IPOL, 2009), p.139. 215
NATIONAL INTEGRITY SYSTEM ASSESSMENT CURAÇAO