Mary King: Case against Monteil

Speaking on the motion brought by Finance Minister Conrad Enill to increase the authorised capital of the bank from $100M to $800M, King asked Enill, “If there was any indication from the Ministry of Finance for this thing to be forwarded to the Integrity Commission or do we wait for the Integrity Commission to do their own investigation?”

King asked her questions after expressing concern about “governance.” She wanted to know if Central Bank had a code of conduct dealing with conflict of interest for directors of banks especially a state enterprises which the Central Bank had “strong control over and advisory capacity.”

Although the Central Bank and the Securities Exchange Commission have said no laws were broken King said, “we know that misbehaviour in public office is breaking of the law of Integrity in Public Life Act.”

Monteil, was chairman of the Home Mortgage Bank when 43.8 percent of its shares were sold to Stone Street Capital, a company he co-owned with his wife. HMB was a company held by Clico of which Monteil is an executive. At the time of the transaction he was Chairman of the state-owned Housing Development Corporation.

Responding to King, Enill said a quarterly diagnostic analysis is conducted on each institution. It focuses on stability, portfolio management and also governance. “It makes sure that governance and conflict of interest issues are in fact part of the requirement of policy for the institutions.”

Referring to the case highlighted by King, Enill said conflict of interest and integrity issues arose if the institutions were public institutions.

“The law was very specific about what could and could not happen. The Government had a particular position on that which was properly articulated but the fact of the matter is the particular transaction and the matters related thereto was done in accordance with the law,” he said.