Both Sides of The Coin: The Story of The Central Bank of Barbados 1972-2017

149 Chapter 4: Maturity, Modernisation and Issues of Governance: 1987 and Beyond AMENDMENTS TO THE CENTRAL BANK ACT In the interest of good governance, from time to time it was necessary to make amendments to the Central Bank of Barbados Act. A number of amendments originated from discussions among, or concerns raised by, Bank staff while others were necessitated by developments of a national, regional or international nature. During the Bank’s formative years there were relatively few amendments and these were intended mainly to clarify the language pertaining to certain provisions. An amendment in 1975 dealt with the Bank’s powers of inspection while those in 1977 addressed the process for increasing the authorised capital, the fixing of buying and selling rates for foreign currency and the disposal of net profits. Most of the substantial amendments took place after 1987. In 1988, Section 10.3 was amended to make the DFP, now the DFEA, a member of the Board, bringing its membership to seven. This was necessary because the DFP at the time, Stephen Emtage, had been appointed to the Board in 1973 in a personal, and not official, capacity. This move regularised the Government’s involvement in the fashioning of monetary policy, thereby ensuring that the Board had a comprehensive view of macroeconomic developments. Replacing the post of general manager by two positions of deputy governor, in 1989, necessitated a large number of amendments, particularly to sections 10,11 and 13 through to 17. These changes spoke to $39.6 million. However in the following year, the BOG suspended payments in order to benefit from debt relief under an initiative by the IMF and World Bank. After the BOG suspended payments, the Bank started, in 2006, to make provision in its accounting for the possibility that the outstanding debt would have to be written off. Total provisioning amounted to $15.7 million which was offset in full during 2014 by receipt of resources from the Accumulated Fund of the CMCF.