Kralendijk- The Council of Ministers of the Kingdom have, on June 23rd, appointed Herbert F. Domacassé as a member of the College Financieel Toezicht (Cft) on behalf of the public entities Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba. Domacassé will start in the new position as per July 1st, 2017. He will succeed former Statia island-governor Hyden Gittens, who had recently submitted his resignation to the Minister of Interior Affairs and Kingdom Relations.

Domacassé has fulfilled a number of functions within the banking industry in Bonaire, Curaçao and Aruba. He has been Minister of Traffic and Transport for the Netherlands Antilles and island-governor on behalf of the then island-territory Bonaire. Currently Domacassé is member of the Supervisory Board of the Caribbean Netherlands Pension Fund. He succeeds Mr. Gittens as a member of the board of financial supervision for Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba.

Gittens was granted a honorable dismissal by Royal Decree. Before the termination of his three-year appointment term, Gittens had tendered his resignation to the Minister in order to accept a project of Interior Affairs and Kingdom Relations in connection with his acceptance of a contract for the public entity Sint Eustatius.

According to Cft, this was done to avoid a potential conflict of interest between his role as member of supervisory body and his advisory role via his consultancy company.

Outgoing Cft Chairman Age Bakker thanked Mr. Gittens for the enjoyable cooperation. Bakker said to be is pleased that Gittens will continue use his knowledge and expertise to the benefit of the Caribbean Netherlands.

Interestingly enough, Gittens was just recently turned down by the Minister of Interior Affairs and Kingdom Relations to serve as member member of the so-called ‘committee of wise men’ which will be looking into the strained relationship between Oranjestad and The Hague.