While Central Bank Governor Jwala Rambarran’s Forex consumer revelation was not wrong, Government needs to act on the impasse with him since the situation is untenable in T&T’s economic situation which requires stability, says businessman Peter George Jr.
“The Finance Minister and Governor must have a proper working relationship and if they can’t have that, something needs to happen. Government has to do what’s right smartly and swiftly,” he added yesterday.
Government has maintained silence on continuing advice to “talk it out” with Rambarran amid their increased tensions. The situation escalated following complaints by several businesses that Rambarran breached Central Bank confidentiality laws in disclosing T&T’s largest Forex users.
Government subsequently sought legal advice last week on whether that was so and also reportedly on whether Rambarran’s revelations constituted “misconduct” in relation to his duties. Advice was also sought on whether the President had any discretion to reject a Cabinet directive on termination of a Central Bank head.
Cabinet was advised heads of state obey the wishes of the Government of the day. President Anthony Carmona is overseas until January 1. Senate president Christine Kangaloo is acting President.
Following Cabinet’s discussions on the issue, Prime Minister Keith Rowley last weekend panned Rambarran’s actions, saying if he “ended up” being removed, it would have been due to his own “reckless” actions.
Yesterday, acting Finance Minister Camille Robinson-Regis, when asked if the Government would have talks with Rambarran, said the issue was being dealt with by the substantive minister. Robinson-Regis is acting for Colm Imbert until today.
Yesterday an on-line petition by one “Eric Williamson” supporting Rambarran had garnered 232 signatures out of a targeted 500. George said it was clear there was a divergence of views between some public opinion (which was happy to obtain the Forex revelation) and corporate sentiment (which wasn’t).
“But transparency goes both ways,” George added, saying:
“I have no issue with the Governor’s revelation even if it was my business involved. There was a public furore for 18 months on the Forex matter when funds were unavailable and he gave the information obviously to quell concerns.
“Forex is a sovereign asset of the State, constituting part of the national patrimony. It’s the State’s money. Therefore, the public has a right to know what’s being done with it. It’s essentially their money.”
George, who disagreed with comments by Dr Terrence Farrell on the issue, said, however, the Government needed to act on the issue now.
“They may have tried, via proxies, to sway public opinion to get consensus behind them on the matter but it doesn’t seem to be working. The Governor is attaining support and meantime T&T is being faced with certain issues,” he added.
He said if a decision was made to terminate Rambarran’s appointment, it needed to be implemented since the situation was fermenting into a bigger problem while T&T was being faced with other issues.
“In the end it’s about leadership and confidence. I believe the Prime Minister should address this issue in his upcoming statement since the situation facing T&T requires confidence.
“We don’t know how long the economic issues will last and the country will require a situation where proper economic decisions can be made but this situation (with the Governor) is untenable.”
The T&T Guardian was told Rambarran is “calm and confident,” watching the situation and would likely challenge any “unjustified move against him made on a shallow basis,” and against the independent office of governor.
Information reaching the T&T Guardian was that the situation was being monitored to see if any move develops over “coming weeks.”
Legal sources contacted on the matter indicated the independence of the office of Governor was one issue while the issue of confidentiality was another.