Did Govt. know about CLICO’s admitted illegal activities hence the rush to take it over?

Sep 13, 2010 Letters

Dear Editor,
Kaieteur News’ September 11 editorial, “The CLICO investors and their wish,” which accompanied the paper’s headline news story, “Court paves way for Jagdeo to pay CLICO shareholders,” stated that Chief Justice Ian Chang’s “decision highlighted a number of things that had been wrong all along but which the investors in CLICO had no knowledge. By its own admission before the Chief Justice, CLICO stated that it had been conducting illegal activities — that it had been acting illegally in contravention of the Financial Institutions Act.”
Two things jump out at us here: CLICO was doing things in secret with investors/depositors money, and it knew what it was doing was illegal. But what is more telling is that after CLICO collapsed, the Government rushed in and took over CLICO so that no investor/depositor, no member of the public or no media house or operative, relying on the right to know what happened to money belonging to the public, could know exactly what illegal activities took place.
And this has been the hallmark of Government’s decisions and actions pertaining to lots of activities taking place in government and involving the public’s finances and resources. I am making this point to augment my already stated argument for the Government to come clean on the Queens Atlantic Investments Incorporated (QAII) for two previously owned public properties – Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation and Sanata Complex.
This is not about QAII’s operational activities, per se, but about the Government’s lack of transparency pertaining to its business role/relationship with QAII. Government circumvented the Procurement Act of 2003 (a law) to do multi-million dollar business with QAII’s New GPC, and then granted QAII illegal concessions after the company acquired Sanata Complex (which it retroactively corrected via Parliament after the illegality was exposed). And based on the trend of a lack of transparency and questionable actions here, I am demanding a review of the entire government deal with QAII. A lawsuit should not stop the Government from answering questions about its actions.
But what is most telling about the court’s order in the CLICO case in favour of investors/depositors being refunded their money is that investors/depositors may never know what illegal activities CLICO engaged in. And since we’re now hearing Government is going to offer bonds, which I think investors/depositors should seek legal advice on, it is the fact that Government has acted in a manner to place details of CLICO’s illegal activities under lock and key from these clients that these clients should be wary of buying any government bonds.
When CLICO was about to collapse and word started spreading, guess who were able to quietly secure their Berbice Bridge bonds held by CLICO via a decision by New Building Society to buy those bonds? And guess who were left holding empty promises until this day as they watched their US$34M floated overseas? How did Berbice Bridge bond holders secure their investment bonds but other investors were left in the lurch?
Mr. Editor, I can only hope investors/depositors get back every cent of their investments/deposits from CLICO via the promise of the Jagdeo administration and that no punitive action is taken against those who do not buy government bonds. But most of all, I hope the way can be paved via a court ruling for investors/depositors to know the nature of the illegal activities CLICO was involved in that led to all that money going overseas in what some are claiming are real estate investments in Florida. And we know that Florida is home to many Guyanese, so…
I am still baffled that the Government would rush in to take over a private company caught in a financial crisis and place it under government institution without a public investigation. It gives the appearance of a cover-up and now that CLICO has admitted engaging in illegal activities, I am asking: Did Government know about these illegal activities, hence its decision to rush in and take over CLICO? Will an independent investigation reveal any involvement of Government and or its officials in these illegal activities?
Emile Mervin

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Did Govt. know about CLICO’s admitted illegal activities hence the rush to take it over?

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