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GAWU ‘concerned’ about $20M pension scheme in CLICO
The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) yesterday said that it was “concerned” about its pension scheme contributions to Colonial Life Insurance Company (CLICO) which has been placed under judicial management by the government, freezing all transactions.
President of the Union, Komal Chand, told Kaieteur News that over the past 12 years the Union has made some $20M in contributions to Clico through its Pension Scheme.
The Pension Scheme covers the 37 employees GAWU employs to run its operations in representing the rights of workers – some 18,000 in the sugar industry alone.
Chand said that since the Government moved in to place CLICO under judicial management it has been unable to make any transactions. He did not want to say whether the Union had moved to have its money withdrawn from the giant insurance conglomerate which has been crumbling in the Caribbean.
Chand said that Union officials have been trying to meet with the Judicial Manager Maria van Beek – also the Commissioner of Insurance – but she has not yet responded.
He said he hopes that meeting could take place next week.
The President of GAWU said the Union was satisfied with President Bharrat Jagdeo’s statement that policyholders of CLICO will not lose their money. However, he said the Union wants from van Beek “a clear answer” on the status of CLICO.
CLICO’s troubles first surfaced publicly in January when the Trinidad and Tobago government offered a rescue package for its parent company CL Financial, which also owns Republic Bank in the Caribbean.
It was when the Registrar of Insurance in Nassau, The Bahamas ordered the liquidation of CLICO (Bahamas) late February that the Government here made moves to put CLICO (Guyana) under the management of the courts, since 53 percent of the Guyana holdings were invested in the Bahamas operations.
That action now prevents CLICO here from issuing any new policies, varying any existing contracts, or repatriating any funds and disposing of any assets without the prior written consent of the court.
Now, the Jagdeo administration is battling with the authorities in Nassau over claims by the Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham that CLICO there has no record of the Guyana investments.
The Finance Ministry now has the financial records of the investments in The Bahamas, and this evidence is to be forwarded to the Bahamian authorities.
The collapse of CLICO is spreading across the Caribbean. Just after the government here felt obligated to step in to put CLICO operations under judicial management, authorities in Belmopan moved to do the same in Belize.
Now in Barbados, Prime Minister David Thompson has announced that CLICO is in discussion with a local firm regarding the sale of CLICO Life.
The Leader of the Barbados opposition, Mia Mottley, says that she has filed a motion of censure against the Government in Parliament, warning of a debt of around US$46 million in CLICO Life’s Statutory Fund, seriously undermining the viability of the fund.
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