Latibeaudiere DERICK LATIBEAUDIERE, Bank of Jamaica Governor, yesterday dismissed as "erroneous in the extreme" and "irresponsible," a statement by Bruce Golding, president of the National Democratic Movement, claiming that a 40-ft container of $1,000 bills awaiting shipment to Jamaica in Britain had gone missing.
In an interview with The Gleaner, the central bank head said there was simply no such shipment of bank notes bearing the likeness of former Prime Minister Michael Manley, and that a shipment of notes had never been lost in the bank's 40 years of dealing with currency manufacturers Thomas de la Rue, of England.
According to Mr. Latibeaudiere, Mr. Golding or his sources may have been led astray because on September 30 last year, a 20-foot container with 2.4 million pieces of $20 coins, made by the Royal Mint and worth J$48m, was stolen from the South Wales shipping yard of J.P. Shipping.
The Royal Mint, said Mr. Latibeau-diere, was manufacturing replacement coins, and in the interim, no shortage would ensue locally as there were adequate supplies in place.
A statement issued by the BoJ late Thursday afternoon added that the matter had been duly reported to its board after it was brought to the bank's attention on October 2 last year.
Had there been a shipment of the kind Mr. Golding referred to, a local security company would have been asked to move the container from the wharf to the central bank when it reached Jamaica.
Brinks Security has in the past handled coins and notes on behalf of the BoJ. A Brinks executive said yesterday it would have been "very strange" for a shipment of notes to be moved by sea, as this was obviously very risky. He said he had never seen bank notes moved to Jamaica by sea in his 11 years with Brinks Jamaica.
The security specialist said coins were usually moved by sea. Asked how many $1,000 bills could hold in a 40-foot container, he responded with wild peals of laughter.
Mr. Golding had charged that the Bank of Jamaica could end up absorbing the ensuing losses if the bank notes were illegally remitted and ended up in circulation in the island.
Also, he demanded to know the value of the stolen bank notes, whether the shipment was fully insured, if the manufacturers would be held liable, and what steps could be taken to prevent the bank notes from being absorbed into circulation.
The NDM President was said to be on his way out of the island when The Gleaner attempted to contact him yesterday.
