ECCB 2016/2017 Annual Report

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ECCB ANNUAL REPORT 2016/2017

An important upgrade to the organisational structure was the creation of a new Strategic Planning and Projects Department (SPPD) which will be the focal point for strategic policy development and monitoring, policy counsel to the Bank’s leadership, policy formulation and coordination, project management and coordination of the Bank’s financial and economic developmental initiatives.

The Bank also continued to engage member states on the issue of developing and sustaining strong policy units in the Ministries of Finance to assist with supporting more empirical decision making.

realities of the new environment in which the Bank operates. An Office of Risk Management with a Chief Risk Officer, reporting directly to the Governor, was created as the Bank sought to implement its Enterprise Risk Management Framework in an attempt to pursue a more holistic approach to risk management. An important upgrade to the organisational structure was the creation of a Strategic Planning and Projects Department (SPPD) which will be the focal point for strategic policy development and monitoring, policy counsel to theBank’s leadership, policy formulationand coordination, project management and coordination of the Bank’s financial and economic developmental initiatives. The need to ensure that international best practices are adhered to in all aspects of the Bank’s operations resulted in a refocusing of the mandate of the Internal Audit Department (IAD) on assurance responsibilities. The Human Resource Department (HRD) was also the focus of a number of strategic interventions aimed at strengthening its capacity to deliver on its keymandate. The IAD conducted compliance and diagnostic needs assessments of some departments, with a view to addressing impediments that impact the robustness of the Bank’s decision-making framework. Sharp focus was placed on returning the Bank to profitability and reviewing the foreign reserve management policies

RESHAPING ORGANISATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS

The ECCB acknowledges that there have been significant changes in the governance structure of the global economic and financial landscape, which have intensified and consolidated in the post global economic and financial crisis epoch. Changes in the international, legal and regulatory frameworks governing markets, especially financial markets, have resulted in central banks taking a closer look at the efficacyof theirgovernancearrangementsandmethods used to deliver services. The acknowledgement of the changing environment in which the Bank operates and the prospective challenges it is likely to encounter, prompted the development of a new Strategic Plan (2017-2021), titled: Transforming the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union . It is intended for the plan to identify how the ECCB’s organisational effectiveness, one of the key strategic pillars, can be improved. During the financial year, a number of initiatives were pursued and some key changes made in fulfilment of this objective. Of note, were the targeted changes made to adapting the organisational structure and learning systems to better align them with the