WILLEMSTAD - 26 employees of the Banco del Orinoco N.V. must wait until this Friday October 4, 2019 to hear from the Central Bank of Curaçao and St. Maarten (CBCS) what their status is and what their future at the international bank will be.
Last week Friday, these employees received, through their private e-mails, a letter signed by Dr. J Jardim, who is the financial economic director of the CBCS and Mr. K Kleist, head financial stability of the CBCS, informing them that the Central Bank will not be able to pay them their salaries. During the press conference held on September 5 this year, the Central Bank announced that it requested the Court of Justice to allow them to take over the Banco del Orinoco due to certain investigations. That same day, Dr. Jardim explained that the CBCS will take care of the salary of these employees while the investigation is taking place.
According to Dr. Jardim, the investigation has been ongoing since 2016. The Central Bank has assigned one of its employees as the person leading this investigation. Apparently, the request made by the CBCS to the Court was based solely on the testimony of this employee.
But according to sources close to the investigation, there is still nothing tangible to prove that the Banco del Orinoco had to be put under such extraordinary measures by the Central Bank.
After the mail sent by the Central Bank to the employees it became clear that the CBCS does not have funds to pay the salaries. When they took over the Banco del Orinoco, they also took over the bank accounts that were used to pay the salaries. With the funds in these accounts, the Central Bank promised the employees that they would be paid. Now the question arises, and the Central Bank must answer this; where are these funds? For sure the CBCS knows this because, as they said, they have been investigating Banco del Orinoco since 2016.
There are now 26 employees living with uncertainties while when the Banco del Orinoco was operated by the Grupo BOD they received their normal salary every month.
