WILLEMSTAD--Problems surrounding the background check of Curaçao candidate minister for MAN Neysa Schoop-Isenia have taken another turn now that interim President-director of the Central Bank of Curaçao and St. Maarten (CBCS) Leila Matroos-Lastes is pointing fingers at Curaçao Finance Minister Kenneth Gijsbertha (MAN).
Recently, it became known that there was a very negative memo about Schoop-Isenia during her time as assistant managing director at Girobank, which was placed under emergency rule by CBCS. The monetary authority does not count as an advisory body in the screening law for cabinet members, but Matroos-Lasten had still sent the memo to Gijsbertha, who is also the Central Bank’s shareholder representative.
In doing so she expressed an opinion on the suitability for a ministerial position, according to Schoop-Isenia’s lawyer Michael Bonapart. He said these are unilateral internal notes that CBCS had prepared in 2014 about his client during that time at Girobank, which has been under the emergency regulation since December 2013.
In his opinion the memorandum contains serious accusations, suggestive statements and factual inaccuracies that CBCS had never previously made known to Schoop-Isenia, for instance for a rebuttal.
The question arose who leaked this memo to the media and Gijsbertha says that it was not him. The Supervisory Board of the Central Bank announced in a press release they would investigate to find out how this sensitive information was handled.
Matroos-Lasten immediately communicated with the bank’s employees through a letter that it was the MAN-minister who gave the memo to a third party. Now this letter was also leaked to the media.
It stated: "Dear colleagues, last week you were able to take note of various negative attacks against me and the Bank. I can imagine that you are concerned about this. I regret the fact that confidential information from the bank was handed over to a third party by the Minister of Finance, as he himself indicated in the media, and that this was reported in the media shortly thereafter.
“I regret this negative reporting for the bank and its employees. This issue has our explicit attention. I continue to count on your dedication. That is greatly appreciated.”
