Glenn Lall tekking out bank book today

Mar 12, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Today is an important day. Two critical but not unrelated developments are taking place today which I hope that all Guyana follow with keen interest.
The first of these is the press conference which will be held by the Commissioner of Insurance. I am sure that the media corps would be out in their numbers and that they will be fully prepared to ask the questions that are uppermost in the minds of all Guyanese but for which no answers have been provided.
Last week, the media, turned up at the Office of the President prepared for a press conference. They walked with their pens and notebooks. They should have walked instead with their exercise books, blackboard and chalk because they ended up in a classroom setting with the President lecturing them about the global financial crisis.
Of course he said little about the crisis that could not be gleaned from watching CNN and reading the World Bank and IMF websites, while the press corps sat obediently paying rapt attention to him go on and on about the fallout from the crisis.
Of course, when the President was questioned about the policy measures his administration would be taking to deal with the possible effects of global contagion, he could not provide any answers saying only that these would be unveiled soon.
So we have a Budget passed without any announcements as to what adjustments Guyana would need to make to deal with the crisis, and secondly we will now have to wait most likely for a piece-meal and reactive rather than a proactive response to what has been deemed as the world’s worst financial crisis.
The government is behaving as if we are living in a make-believe world and this is mainly due to the fact that are clueless as to how to respond to the crisis which the world now faces because the government simply cannot project and effectively analyze and plan how the contagion will impact on Guyana.
This is what happens when you take ordinariness and elevate it within high office. You end up with bluff and fluff.
What is not bluff and fluff is the situation as regards CLICO and today some answers will be provided, hopefully. Some were provided during the President’s last Press conference. He did indicate that all policyholders will be secured.
No one, of course, asked why and from whence the resources will come. Surely, the President of Guyana does not expect this nation to believe that monies from the Consolidated Fund will be used to guarantee the pension of all policyholders.
Guyanese must ask serious questions about these guarantees and why the government is moving in this direction given the possible exposure should the investments of CLICO (Guyana) in CLICO (Bahamas) not be returned.
How come the government has said that its five per cent increase to air traffic controllers would have to be neutral to the Budget, meaning that the increase will have to be from within the resources of the Civil Aviation Authority, yet it is willing to give what can only amount to a multi- billion dollar guarantee to CLICO?
How come when Globe Trust folded, the government was initially in favour of liquidation but now it is willing to guarantee that all policyholders within CLICO (Guyana) do not lose their pensions and investments?
Neither the government nor CLICO  or for that matter the long term policy holders have to worry about the pension funds invested in CLICO ( Guyana). The statutory fund is supposed to have enough money to cover these liabilities since not all pensions and long term insurance policies mature at the same time.
We will know, today, the status of the statutory fund.
Where the worry lies is in the short term investments made into CLICO and which is believed to total billions of dollars and which may not be adequately secured given the alleged mismatch between assets and liabilities.
I have no doubt that quite a few big wigs have their monies tied up in these short-term instruments which offered high interest rates. It is these investors, some of whom belong to the bourgeoisie class, who stand to lose their monies and to them the guarantees offered by the government is more reassuring. This class has always been known to use its influence to secure its investments.
The second big event today will take place at the New Building Society on the Avenue of the Republic. This newspaper has been trying without success to obtain answers about the NBS investments in the Berbice River Bridge and its purchase of CLICO’s share in that facility.
Glenn himself has tried calling the NBS to ascertain the names of the directors of the Society.  He has been referred to the Office of the President.
Glenn, however, is not the type of man who will be easily deterred.  And so he has decided that the one sure way for him to obtain this information officially is for him to become a member of the New Building Society since as a member he cannot be denied such information.
Glenn Lall will therefore be going in to the NBS today to open a bank book and thus become a member of the society.  I am told he intends to start the account with G$100.

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