Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up WASHINGTON, Sept 22 (Reuters) – The board of the Inter-American Development Bank voted unanimously on Thursday to recommend the firing of President Mauricio Claver-Carone after an independent ethics investigation found misconduct, three sources with knowledge of the vote said. The recommendation throws the final decision on Latin America’s biggest development bank to its top body, the board, which will vote from Friday to Tuesday, one of the sources said. Claver-Carone did not immediately return a phone call or text message seeking comment. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up A U.S. Treasury spokesman declined to confirm the vote but said the United States, the bank’s largest shareholder with 30 percent of the voting stock, supported Claver-Carone’s removal from office and wanted to see “a swift resolution” by administrators. “Chairman Claver-Carone’s refusal to cooperate fully with the investigation and the creation of a climate of fear of reprisals among staff and borrowing countries has lost the confidence of the bank’s staff and shareholders and necessitates a change in leadership,” the spokesman said. . Claver-Carone, in a statement responding to the Treasury Department, said: “It is a shame that the US commented to the press before notifying me and that they are not defending two Americans against what is clearly fabricated information.” The bank’s 14 directors voted after four lengthy discussions and an appearance by Claver-Carone, who was in New York for meetings on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly this week. Reuters reported on Wednesday that the board is nearing consensus on a vote to fire Claver-Carone. Termination of Claver-Carone, a nominee of former US President Donald Trump, requires a majority of the board’s overall voting power. The bank’s three biggest shareholders – the United States, Argentina and Brazil – together hold almost 53% of the voting power. Claver-Carone took office in October 2020. Governors are expected to approve the recommendation, one of the sources said. Law firm Davis Polk told directors it found evidence to support whistleblower allegations that Claver-Carone had engaged in an intimate relationship with a subordinate and engaged in misconduct that violated bank rules. Investigators said they had uncovered evidence, including a photograph of a handwritten contract on the back of a paper placemat, purportedly written and signed by Claver-Carone and staff, which said “we deserve absolute happiness” and a clause which stipulated any breach of contract would result in “candlestick and naughty box”. US officials were particularly concerned about Claver-Caron’s “conduct during the investigation, including his refusal to release his IDB-issued work phone and other records,” a separate source familiar with the matter said. They took issue with the “selective and misleading release of confidential information intended to subvert the investigation and shape public opinion,” the source said. This had “undermined confidence in Claver-Carone’s credibility and ability to lead a rules-based multilateral development institution,” the source added. Claver-Carone also denied “direct evidence” that he had an undisclosed relationship with an IDB staff member who reported directly to him and to whom he gave raises totaling more than 45% of base pay in less than a year, the source added. U.S. officials believed Claver-Carone had created “an environment in which personnel feared retaliation, including actual retaliation against senior and rank-and-file personnel who participated fully and honestly in the investigation,” the source said. U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, had strongly opposed Trump’s appointment of Claver-Carone as the first American to lead the bank, a post traditionally held by a Latin American. “That tradition should be restored, with a person of the highest integrity and professionalism,” Leahy told Reuters. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up Reporting by Andrea Shalal in Washington and Cassandra Garrison in Mexico City. Edited by Josie Kao and Stephen Coates Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Guard Cassandra Thomson Reuters Journalist based in Mexico focusing on climate change and companies with an emphasis on telecommunications. Previously based in Santiago, Chile and Buenos Aires, she covered Argentina’s debt crisis, the dispute over influence between the United States and China in Latin America, and the coronavirus pandemic.
