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Claver Carone denounces reprisals against those who collaborated with him at the IDB

2022-10-19T10:38:57.555Z


Agency employees ask for explanations about the continuity of the chief of staff The waters remain troubled at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Following the removal of Mauricio Claver Carone as president, a forum with employees held last week by the agency reflected employee concerns about the bank's situation. Many questions remained unresolved, including the one that was repeated the most times, according to the list to which this newspaper has had access: what is


The waters remain troubled at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

Following the removal of Mauricio Claver Carone as president, a forum with employees held last week by the agency reflected employee concerns about the bank's situation.

Many questions remained unresolved, including the one that was repeated the most times, according to the list to which this newspaper has had access: what is going to happen to Claver Carone's chief of staff and strategy?

Meanwhile, the former president denounces in a conversation with EL PAÍS that retaliation is being taken against those who collaborated with him in the bank and defends his management.

The questions from the employees reflect the dissatisfaction on the part of the bank's staff with the management of Human Resources, the lack of sufficient controls and transparency and the lack of an appointment policy in relation to merit.

The vast majority of the questions were anonymous, but they received votes from the participants and more than 200 asked for explanations about the continuity of Claver Carone's chief of staff, Jessica Bedoya.

Many reflect the state of opinion recently described by current and former employees of the entity, of fear of reprisals.

Claver Carone, however, defends his management.

“The bank has always had a history of operating in silos, of poor results and a history of corruption and I wanted to end that.

When I arrived at the bank, I made it clear from the beginning that maintaining the status quo was not an option, ”he explains to EL PAÍS.

“I have a direct way of doing things, and a direct style can sometimes be interpreted as aggressive because I didn't keep quiet.

For many years the bank had been the worst financial institution in the world, even being exposed to

subprime

.

My goal was to promote innovation and results, and that culture of results and customer satisfaction collides with people who have been there for 20 or 30 years”.

“I do not have the hypocrisy that dominated the bank, it is a different culture, there may have been some cultural misunderstandings because I have been direct and honest and now I see that people who have been linked to corruption cases allow themselves to criticize me”, keep going.

He also defends himself against criticism for having dispensed with people with a lot of experience in the bank and having promoted others who, according to former bank employees, were easier to control and manipulate: "We changed people because the ministers of the countries for which they worked they asked for it.

Customers were not satisfied and I brought the idea of ​​customer satisfaction to the bank.

In addition, those changes have allowed talented women who had a glass ceiling to rise.

The people who left did so with extremely generous packages for the rest of their lives.

They are not victims.

No company or government would have given them what they received.

I have not retaliated, I have changed people to have better results.

But now there is retaliation against those who worked with me at the bank."

Some directors and governors of the bank also point out that the situation in the entity's bodies was unsustainable.

“In the board there was a tense atmosphere because I did not shut up and challenged the historical power of the bank and capital quotas that no longer reflect the true economic weight of the countries, I wanted to reform the bank and governance, but now it will never happen again. it will be able to modernize”, he replies.

Claver Carone also complains about what he considers to have been a process without rules.

“They wanted to vilify and defame me and in the end they kicked me out of the bank without cause.

I did not have a relationship, nobody can say that I have broken the rules of the bank and the resolution of my termination does not say so”.

EL PAÍS has had access to that resolution in which no cause is actually cited.

The draft resolution mentions the report made by the Davis Polk law firm, although without going into its conclusions.

The former president defends salary increases for his chief of staff.

He points out that they hid the salary of the previous chief of staff and the previous vice presidents and that when he found out that his charges were receiving much less than his predecessors, he raised their salaries.

Despite this, he assures him, he saved 1.5 million in salaries from the office of the presidency compared to his predecessor.

And he points out that his chief of staff had "experience never seen before in that position, due to her previous stint at the CIA, the State Department, the White House and the Development Finance Corporation."

He considers that the fact that her attacks are focused on her is "pure machismo and discrimination."

"Unfortunately, we are seeing in the bank the same machismo that plagues the region," he tells EL PAÍS.

the farewell letter

In his farewell letter to the bank's governors, to which EL PAÍS has had access, Claver Carone complained of not having been able to adequately defend himself: "According to all parameters, 2021 proved to be the most successful year since the Bank's founding 63 years ago.

Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to present my case to the 48 members of the Executive Board or to you, the Board of Governors”.

And he made a staunch defense of his management: “We optimized our balance sheets to achieve record funding of $23.5 billion while implementing unprecedented cost savings;

we build trust in the private sector to achieve co-financing and mobilization records;

we made the biggest gains in a single year in transparency indicators and stakeholder satisfaction surveys;

we fought sexism by appointing the largest number of women to decision-making positions in the Bank's history;

we rejected extortion and patronage, ensuring that for the first time small countries were represented in the highest positions;

we garnered previously lost support from US Congressional leaders and non-governmental organizations, and corrected the Bank's misguided favoritism toward China over the past decade."

ensuring that for the first time small countries were represented in the highest positions;

we garnered previously lost support from US Congressional leaders and non-governmental organizations, and corrected the Bank's misguided favoritism toward China over the past decade."

ensuring that for the first time small countries were represented in the highest positions;

we garnered previously lost support from US Congressional leaders and non-governmental organizations, and corrected the Bank's misguided favoritism toward China over the past decade."

The former president also launched a barrage of criticism: “Many in the region have remained stuck in the status quo.

The old-guard bureaucracies are deeply entrenched in their own interests, and their sense of privilege is all too pronounced.

Instead of working for progress, they are stuck in a cycle of populist ideologies and political patronage.

Meanwhile, in the United States, the Biden Administration suffers from partisan myopia and lack of a cohesive strategy,” he said.

He also complained of "arbitrariness", of the "lack of due process" and disregard of the procedures in his dismissal.

The presentation of candidacies for the presidency is open until September 11 and the vote is scheduled for the 20th of that month.

At the bank, the atmosphere remains tense, as the questions posed to the acting president, Reina Irene Mejía, showed, most of which remained unanswered.

Employee questions

The one that received the most support from the participants was this: “Why hasn't the other person involved in the investigation been removed from his position?

This is an insult to the institution and the employees.

Also, do we deserve at least an apology from HR, while we were fighting inflation by asking for a raise, they told us to stop complaining, but authorized obscene salary increases to the chief of staff?

There were a dozen more questions along the same lines and many participants unsuccessfully asked for an answer.

In several interventions, the information published by EL PAÍS about the change in the bank was cited.

This is a selection of some of the questions raised by bank employees during the forum, almost all of them anonymously, which according to one of the participants was also a warning about the lack of confidence of employees in the organization leaders.

Together, they show an overview of the concerns of the bank's staff:

—How does the bank plan to work to change the climate of fear of retaliation?

Is just changing the president enough?

What levels of administration will be removed?

For example, VP, managers, representatives or even positions that have followed extensive and transparent competitive procedures.

The culture of terror is not admissible.

—We celebrate that the board retraced its steps, since it was the same board that put the former president in command of our institution and it was we who suffered from the policy of terror and control.

How can the staff have a participation in the decision of the new president?

—It is important to recognize that in the previous administration there was a general fear of reprisals from senior management towards employees for denouncing abuses of power.

This needs to be corrected and made a priority for the new administration.

Are they going to change the way things are reported?

It is obvious that the current system does not work and that trust in Human Resources and Ethics has been lost.

For example, will we have any changes in human resources processes or policies, such as due diligence related to salary increases for people with minimal experience in the institution?

"Shouldn't executives be selected for their competence?"

Politics (including country “quotas”) and favors play too big a role.

- Will there be a Human Resources strategy, with deep reforms to reward meritocracy and not continue responding to personal interests and favoritism?

Are they going to change the way things are reported?

It is obvious that the current system does not work and that trust in Human Resources and Ethics has been lost.

—Why was there so much silence from the high administration in the face of the abuses that were committed?

—The former president has launched a campaign to smear the IDB Group, using the media to spread slander and justify his actions that go against the code of ethics.

What is the Bank doing to mitigate this reputational damage in public opinion?

—What changes in our internal processes, transparency systems, and checks and balances were driven by this process?

For example, will we have any changes in human resources processes or policies, such as due diligence related to salary increases for people with minimal experience in the institution?

—Will there be a new rule so that it is not repeated that governors who vote for a president are then appointed to the senior administration, compromising their independence?

And given the lack of answers to many of these questions, there were also many interventions like this: “Why don't you read the most voted questions?

They are the most representative of the people.”

Source: elparis

All business articles on 2022-10-19

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