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The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) considered all the information before it and took the decision to end the tenure of its president, Mauricio Claver-Carone, whose management of the multi-lateral agency raised eyebrows and made staff feel uneasy.

After an extensive inquest into allegations that he conducted an inappropriate relationship with a staff member, it was decided he had to go.

Staffers recount a toxic working environment where workers’ opinions and observations were never given a listening ear and that Claver-Carone’s style could best be described as “a reign of terror”.

In the Caribbean, people are still perplexed as to why someone as gifted and able as Therese Turner- Jones was dismissed with no apparent explanation. She was headquartered in Jamaica and oversaw six Caribbean countries for the IDB.

Claver-Carone never ventured an explanation. He expeditiously dismissed her and, even when he came to Jamaica last year, chose not to address the matter.

Talking with renown Spanish newspaper El Pais, Turner-Jones gave insight into what it was like working at the IDB in the time of Claver-Carone.

“No one was talking. Conversations were taking place outside, not inside the building. That’s how ridiculous it was. Colleagues seemed depressed, despondent and demoralised.”

The IDB has made it clear that the next president of the institution will not come from the United States (US) Claver-Carone was a Trump appointee who had built relationships both in the US Senate and House of Representatives and was expected to facilitate donations.

With him now gone, both the board of directors and governors will have to re-examine the IDB’s management structure and working practices.

“The important thing is for this not to happen again. This case is solved. Really, it has damaged the reputation of the institution, but it is about where we go from here, especially considering the needs of the region.”

Therese Turner-Jones

Toxicity, fear and loathing, together with recriminatory behaviour, cannot be allowed to prevail and undermine the credibility of the organisation.

Turner-Jones continued: “The important thing is for this not to happen again. This case is solved. Really, it has damaged the reputation of the institution, but it is about where we go from here, especially considering the needs of the region.”

Claver-Carone says the allegations levelled at him are untrue and that he was removed because of a conspiracy involving the media and Latin American and Caribbean countries to oust him.

“I don’t care that they have decided to take me out of the bank. I care that it was in a defamatory and dirty way,” Claver-Carone said in a media interview.

Last month he said he may be seeking legal recourse as a result of his dismissal.

One of the IDB governors, Niel Annen, told El Pais: “More than the love affair, it has been a clear violation of the bank’s Code of Ethics. For me, personally, and also for my fellow governors, it was a very serious fact that trust was broken because Mr Claver-Carone was not cooperating with the investigation. On the contrary, he was using the bank’s resources to defend himself publicly and I think that was very serious.”

The El Pais article tells of an IDB riven by malevolence and anyone who was considered stepping out of line was crushed.

It cites Carola Alvarez, who worked at the IDB for 15 years.

Of Claver-Carone’s leadership, she said: “A culture of retaliation was created within the institution against any discrepancy or difference of opinion. There were reprisals for people who published a programme evaluation with a negative result because of consequences and the inconvenience that this generated for the Trump administration.”

El Pais noted that everyone interviewed for its article recounted the toxic working climate and the atmosphere of fear. The staff was managed by horrible bosses led by Claver-Carone.

Now that he’s gone, there is a feeling of relief and that a better working environment can be created.

“An organisation where professionals cannot do their jobs cannot tell the truth, disagree or present an alternative point of view is not a dynamic organisation that grows and thrives,” said Turner-Jones.