Tancoo: New board will revamp CAL

Finance Minister Davendranath Tancoo has said the new board of directors appointed to Caribbean Airlines will fix the “criminal negligence” of the national airline.

He said under the previous administration, CAL spent over $60 million on audits but did not submit any audited financial statements for almost ten years.

Speaking during the 2025/2026 budget presentation in Parliament on October 13, Tancoo said international firms Ernst & Young and PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) conducted CAL’s audits but no statements were filed.

"CAL’s management spent more than $60 million on audits from Ernst and Young and PwC but still failed to submit a single audited financial statement to the Ministry of Finance for over nine years," he said.

He said the former finance minister still "repeatedly approved financing for CAL in 2017, 2018, 2019, and as recently as March 2025 to cover operational pressures," ignoring the lack of transparency.

"The former minister closed his eyes as CAL descended into inefficiency, non-compliance and fiscal indiscipline," Tancoo said, calling it "nothing short of criminal negligence."

Tancoo said his ministry has now installed a new board to "make the hard decisions required to fix our national airline" and restore accountability in the state enterprise sector.

He also said the Ministry of Finance is updating the "obsolete" State Enterprise Performance Monitoring Manual.

"We are replacing outdated frameworks with modern governance standards," said Tancoo.

"This will ensure the best international practices concerning corporate governance, accountability, transparency and delivering value for taxpayers’ money."

This comes after CAL confirmed the immediate resignation of CEO Garvin Medera on October 13, appointing chief operating officer Nirmala Ramai as CEO.

The board thanked Medera for his years of service and leadership and wished him the best in his future endeavours.

Medera said: "I want to take this opportunity to thank all the employees of Caribbean Airlines who have done such a fantastic job over the past few years, facing some very difficult challenges and being their best, time and again, for each other and our passengers.

"Also, thanks to partners for their support and commitment and customers for their trust and loyalty. I wish everyone well."

CAL said under the guidance of the board, Ramai will work closely with its senior leadership team to support the airline through this transition.

It added that it will continue to operate its full schedule, with no disruption to customers or partners.

The board said this leadership transition comes at an important time for the airline and is part of its ongoing focus on stability, safety and accountability.

As part of this transition, the board and senior leadership team said it will be focusing on the five key initiatives: supporting employees and stakeholders with open communication and care; reviewing operations to increase efficiency and modernisation; enhancing the customer experience with improved services; developing a long-term, financially responsible and sustainable growth plan; and conducting full and thorough audits of all departments and processes, to strengthen governance, safety, and accountability.

The airline also said it is committed to developing and promoting talent from within the organisation, before seeking external candidates, to provide employees with clear opportunities for growth and career advancement.