By Ken Richards From Caribbean News Now

BASSETERRE, St Kitts (WINN) — The Eastern Caribbean Monetary Council is being criticized for allegedly dragging its feet on appointing a new governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB).

Former St Kitts and Nevis government minister Dwyer Astaphan said on Tuesday that the finance ministers, some of them prime ministers, who make up the Council have been aware for some time that Governor Sir Dwight Venner’s contract was due to end on Monday, November 30, and should have by now announced a new governor to replace him.

Monetary Council chairman, Anguilla’s Chief Minister Victor Banks, on Friday dismissed media reports that a Saint Lucian national had been appointed the new ECCB governor.

Banks told WINN FM at the time that the selection process was still ongoing, and the new appointee would likely be announced by the second week of December.

Astaphan claimed that the slow pace of finding a new governor is reflected in other ways at the ECCB and suggested that the people of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) need to get more disclosure on how the Central Bank operates.

IMAGE: dwyer_astaphan7.jpg Former minister of national security and tourism Dwyer Astaphan

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