Nation to be apprised on CLICO debacle today

Mar 12, 2009 News

Maria van Beek

Commissioner of Insurance and Judicial Manager of Colonial Life Insurance Company (CLICO) Guyana, Maria van Beek, will today apprise the nation on the actual status of the company and its efforts to recoup the $6.9B invested in CLICO (Bahamas).
At a recent press briefing, Head of State Bharrat Jagdeo had indicated that Guyana has secured attorneys in The Bahamas and had filed Guyana’s claim.

As it relates to CLICO (Guyana), he said that the services of two Canadian actuaries (persons who compute premium rates, dividends, risks, etc., according to probabilities based on statistical records) will be secured to analyse the records of CLICO (Guyana).

He did concede that “at this point in time the liabilities are greater than the assets, that is if the money invested in Bahamas is not recovered from abroad.”
Today’s press briefing has been long awaited given that vested stakeholders have a vested interest with regard to the investment in CLICO (Bahamas) given that to date there has been no public pronouncement as to whether records exist in that country as it relates to the investment.

This is the case, given the statement that the Bahamian Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hubert Ingraham who recently told his Parliament that there was no record of Guyana’s investment in that country.
Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh subsequently provided a paper trail of investments on the Guyana side and has submitted them to The Bahamas.
At that time there was a plethora of correspondence, including wire transfers of substantial amounts, dating as far back as 2004 with CLICO (Guyana) utilizing several local banks to transfer money to CLICO (Bahamas) accounts in Ocean Bank in Florida.

The first set of monies went to British Fidelity Insurance Limited, the precursor to CLICO (Bahamas).
As recent as last year, monies were transferred to CLICO (Bahamas). In one case a bank draft went missing and was replaced. The record of this transaction was also revealed.
There was communication with Karen Ann Gardier, who was to become CLICO (Bahamas) Regional Director, Finance and Investments.

During an interview with this newspaper, yesterday, the Finance Minister said that there was even confirmation of receipts of the monies sent to CLICO (Bahamas). As if to provide further proof of the transactions between CLICO (Guyana) and CLICO (Bahamas) there is mention of Guyana in the CLICO (Bahamas) audited annual reports of 2006 and 2007.

Under “Sale (withdrawals) of insurance contracts” a sum of US$15,114,138 was indicated in 2006.
In the following year there was mention of US$1,656,302, representing interest payment to Guyana.
According to Dr Singh, CLICO (Guyana) was given specific instructions to recover investments in The Bahamas. These investments were all short-term ones and the most recent request for the return of the money was made by way of letter to Gardier early last month.