Post trial analyses on CLICO

Jan 25, 2010 Letters

Dear Editor,

Some of those claims in the article on CLICO (Kaieteur News 17-01-10) I have heard before.

I’ve been attending the hearings in the Chief Justice’s court, and always after these hearings, the spectators, mostly former ex-CLICO agents, gather outside in the hallway not far from the Chief Justice’s court, to do post-trial analyses, usually one man, almost a spitting image of George Jefferson, doing most of the talking, the others listening attentively, silently. I, however, wasn’t one of the silent ones. I asked questions. Here are some of the responses:

The top person at CLICO is the villain; Duprey, however, is a Mother Theresa (I am paraphrasing).

CLICO has enough money, even though the audit showed CLICO in the red, enough money to pay off all the policy holders. This wasn’t inclusive of money from the sale of the real estate and the US$15 million the government received from the Government of Trinidad.

The Government of Guyana intends to fire-sale off the real estate, selling it cheaply to its own people.

The Government of Guyana, in contradiction to several statements by the President, statements endorsed by the parliament, intends to pay off its own organisations like the NIS, and whatever crumbs remain will be passed out to the policy holders. I was asked if I wanted only 20 percent of what I invested.

Now, I have to admit I was thrown when I read the claim that the $2 billion CLICO Guyana received from the sale of the bonds it held in the Berbice Bridge Company had been deposited in the company’s account and was still there. I thought that money had long gone, used to pay off policy holders, some of whom (there are rumours going around) had inside information. So, I’ve checked with people who know something about the financial guts of CLICO. One said that claim, indeed the entire article, was ‘highly erroneous.’

I grant the claim that the Government of Guyana, when it put the company under judicial management, the only government in the Caribbean to do so, screwed up a good company. That was like screwing down the coffin, a sure way to bury a company. But, the main thing now is the policy holders, thousands of whom used to depend on the cheques from CLICO to live, pay their light bills, buy food, etc. Now, these people, many long retired and in their 60s and 70s and 80s, are without that needed source of income. Need I say more about how they’re getting by these days?

What is the intention of CL Financial and its supporters here? Is it about paying off the policy holders? Or, is it really about saving CLICO? If it is the latter, I got news. When a financial company sours its investors, goes bad on them, is reckless with their hard-earned money, it’s worse than when a spouse is unfaithful. Usually, in the latter, they find a way to forgive and go on. Not so with a financial company. There is no room for forgiveness. I personally would never even invest a blind cent in CLICO again. If CLICO has money to pay us off, and if it wants to do so, I’d be the first one in line that would stretch for miles and miles.

Investor

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Post trial analyses on CLICO

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