State to pay sacked Central Bank Governor Hilaire

The State has reached a set­tle­ment with for­mer Cen­tral Bank Gov­er­nor Dr Alvin Hi­laire, avert­ing a tri­al in his con­sti­tu­tion­al claim against the Cab­i­net and the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al, Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands, through at­tor­neys in­volved in the case.

The mat­ter came up for tri­al be­fore Jus­tice Ram­sumir Hinds at the Port-of-Spain High Court on Mon­day.

Hi­laire chal­lenged the Cab­i­net’s June 24, 2025 de­ci­sion to ad­vise the Pres­i­dent to re­voke his ap­point­ment as Cen­tral Bank Gov­er­nor and ap­point for­mer fi­nance min­is­ter Lar­ry Howai to the po­si­tion.

He al­so sought dam­ages from the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al for al­leged breach­es of his con­sti­tu­tion­al rights.

The tri­al was sched­uled to in­clude the cross-ex­am­i­na­tion of Min­is­ter Kennedy Swarats­ingh and Hi­laire. How­ev­er, be­fore pro­ceed­ings be­gan, the State ap­proached Hi­laire with an of­fer to set­tle the mat­ter.

Fol­low­ing dis­cus­sions, the par­ties reached an agree­ment on terms de­scribed as favourable to Hi­laire. The terms were en­dorsed on coun­sel’s brief.

Hi­laire was rep­re­sent­ed by Stu­art Young, SC, An­tho­ny Bul­lock and Im­ran Ali.

The State was rep­re­sent­ed by Tom Richards, KC, Ger­ald Ramdeen, Krys­ta Jal­im, Rad­ha Sookdeo and Lau­ra-Lee Hack­shaw.