Mauricio Claver-Carone’s term as IDB president was set to expire in 2025. Mauricio Claver-Carone was the first American to hold the top job at the organization.
The
Inter-American Development Bank, the hemisphere’s premier international lending
institution, voted Monday to fire its president. Mauricio Claver-Carone was
terminated following a unanimous recommendation by the 14-member executive
board, the organization said.
The
termination was first reported by Reuters.
In a
statement, the IDB said Claver-Carone, whose term was set to expire in 2025,
“will cease to hold the office of President of the Bank” effective Monday.
The
statement did not refer to a well-publicized investigation into him. Two people
familiar with the probe said it was the results of that investigation that led
to the vote. The individuals spoke on the condition of anonymity because they
were not authorized to speak about the inner workings of IDB or the results of
the investigator’s report, which has not been made public.
One of
the individuals said investigators found evidence to conclude Claver-Carone had
a relationship with a staff member who reported directly to him, and to whom he
gave raises totaling more than 45 percent of base pay in less than one year.
Claver-Carone’s leadership of the organization also resulted in employees
fearing retaliation from him, the person said.
Vice
President Reina Irene Mejía Chacón will lead the organization until a new
president is elected, the statement said.
The
Biden administration appeared to welcome Claver-Carone’s ouster.
A
spokesperson for the Treasury Department said the United States “supports the
dismissal of the IDB President.” The department said Claver-Carone’s “refusal
to fully cooperate with the investigation, and his creation of a climate of
fear of retaliation among staff and borrowing countries, has forfeited the
confidence of the Bank’s staff and shareholders and necessitates a change in
leadership.”
Claver-Carone
had previously criticized the nature of investigation, saying in a statement to
the Associated Press that the probe “failed to meet international standards of
integrity that both the IDB and the region strive to exemplify.”
He had
added: “In clear and direct contravention of IDB ethics rules, neither I nor
any other IDB staff member has been given an opportunity to review the final
investigative report, respond to its conclusions, or correct inaccuracies.”
In a
statement after the vote, Claver-Carone also claimed without evidence that ousting
him from his position would embolden China, the AP reported.
In June
2020, President Donald Trump announced the nomination of Claver-Carone, then a
senior figure at the National Security Council whom the Trump administration
credited with boosting private-sector investment in Latin America and the
Caribbean. His election that September marked the first time the United States
— by far the bank’s biggest donor — held the top position at the six-decade-old
organization.
Claver-Carone’s
defenders described him as a reformer leading a long-beleaguered organization
rife with corruption. According to his biography on the IDB’s website, he had
led “a comprehensive reform of the Bank’s business model” and was “overseeing a
broad effort to improve operational efficiency, productivity and transparency
to facilitate better results, impact and monitoring effectiveness.”
Critics
describe him differently. Investigators said there was evidence he conducted an
affair with a staffer at the National Security Council, which prompted one
official to warn that it posed a counterintelligence security risk, the AP
reported. The Biden administration — which has sought to reaffirm America’s
relationship with multinational organizations — had indicated it was taking the
allegations against Claver-Carone seriously.
Michael
Shifter, former president of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank and an
adjunct professor at Georgetown University, said Claver-Carone’s lack of
high-level diplomatic expertise made him an unusual choice for the IDB role.
“There was a basic question of how qualified was he, given his background,”
Shifter said in an interview. “There was always a cloud, or at least a big
question.”