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

25 directors recognised from early the usefulness of creating sub-committees from among their membership to handle important matters. By the second meeting, two such groups were in place. One was to study designs and features for the proposed Barbados currency and the other to deal with the recruitment of management. During 1973, a sub-committee to advise on staff pensions was created. Calendar year 1973 was a very busy time for the Board. Auditors were appointed early in the year and an audit of the Bank commenced on February 5. Members met on 14 occasions during the year as they grappled with several pressing and difficult issues, many of which had very tight deadlines. The directors held regular meetings in every month except July, with the meeting in October lasting two days. Three special meetings were convened to discuss the new Barbados coins, additional office space and amendments to the exchange control regulations. 18 During this formative period, there were several changes in the membership of the Board. In 1973, the new member of the Board was the recently-appointed, first Director of Finance and Planning (DFP), Stephen Emtage. In the following year, the new appointees were Dr. Bishnodat Persaud, research fellow at the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the Cave Hill campus of the UWI and Robert Morris, director of research with the Barbados Institute of Management and Productivity (BIMAP). 19 Cliviston King (later Sir James), an attorney-at-law, was appointed for a two-year period in 1975. By the end of that year, there was one vacancy on the Board since no one had been appointed in place of Mr. Osborne whose appointment had expired during the year. Public or quasi- public sector officers featured prominently in the composition of the Board between 1972 and 1975; of the nine persons who served only Douglas Lynch and Alfred Clarke were from the private sector. It was envisaged by the Board that the organisation of the Bank should proceed in three phases according to a schedule prepared by Kroc. Initially, the basic groundwork would be put in place to facilitate full-scale operations. This necessitated the establishment of a Secretariat, the Accounting, Exchange Control and Research Departments. Secondly, Chapter 2: The Early Years: 1972 - 1975