We weren’t fired, say former SLB board members

Two former board members of the Students’ Loan Bureau (SLB) have sought to make it clear that they were not dismissed.

Instead, the two ex-board members, who requested anonymity, said that in keeping with protocol, the entire panel agreed to step down in March last year after Dr Nigel Clarke was appointed finance minister.

However, they revealed that the board, under the chairmanship of Dr St Aubyn Bartlett, was asked to stay on until year end to allow Clarke to focus on matters of national importance. The board included Matthew Samuda, Norma Kerr-Clarke, Maurice Smith, Lloyd Waller, Veronica Warmington, Howard Chamberlain, and Monica Brown, the executive director.

Yesterday, Financial Secretary Darlene Morrison confirmed that the Bartlett-led board demitted office last month and that a replacement board had been appointed.

However, Morrison, who was responding to questions from Opposition Member of Parliament Mikael Phillips during a meeting of the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee of Parliament, said that she could not indicate whether the board members resigned or were dismissed.

The disclosure comes more than three months after a performance audit of the SLB revealed that its stock of non-performing loans ballooned from $1 billion to a little more than $11 billion over a five-year period ending in the 2017-2018 financial year.