WHEN THINGS TURN SOUR

Sep 20, 2010 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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When organic matter is left unattended and unpreserved for a long time, it begins to rot… and may even turn sour. We do not want that for CLICO (Guyana) for a great many persons have interests in that entity which if left to rot will result in serious material losses.
Over 11,000 policyholders were affected  by the CLICO (Guyana) crash one year ago. But that understates the total numbers of persons affected for in the case of the losses that the National Insurance Scheme suffered, and considering the tens of thousands of Guyanese who subscribe to that scheme, it can be concluded that both directly and indirectly, the downturn of CLICO ( Guyana) has affected every single Guyanese.
In terms of its reach, the fiasco of CLICO( Guyana) has affected more Guyanese than the devastating floods of 2005 which was said affected tens of thousands of Guyanese. Yet in spite of the widespread effect (both direct and indirect) of CLICO (Guyana) there has been an unwillingness to do what would have been done in lesser circumstances: a full-fledged investigation into the collapse of this insurance giant.
This is not for the want of such appeals. From the moment that there was an application for judicial management of the company, there have been consistent calls for an inquiry into the collapse.
This fell on deaf ears, at least until now when we are told that the government is not opposed to an investigation in time.
No one must get excited by this about-turn. The commitment is qualified by “ in time” which means the government is not promising an immediate investigation, but is merely saying that in time there can be an investigation. It could be next week, next year or the next of never.
But we must have faith in our good President. While a great many things have been happening that one would have expected stronger action from our good President, we must have faith that this time around he will ensure that despite the pontifications of the sour pusses around, the CLICO affair will not be allowed to go uninvestigated.
It should not be. Billions of dollars have been lost in this affair. The government of Trinidad has bailed us out of this mess with a handsome contribution from its petroleum.
The least that Guyana can do is to assure them that we will punish those that were responsible for what is being viewed in some circles as a high-tech swindle.
Billions of dollars were moved from CLICO (Guyana) into the Bahamas and then into Miami where it dissolved in the midst of the global financial crisis. Guyana served as a cash cow for the Miami investments which are all but lost, leaving thousands of Guyanese in great distress as to what would happen to their investments in the local company.
Our good President, however, came to the rescue like a knight in shining armour and with the help of the Trinidad government boldly proclaimed that no policyholder would lose their money.
Now that the company is in liquidation we are in fact being told that within three weeks, NICIL, that controversial firm, will begin paying out cheques to policyholders.
But what will be paid out. Is it the maturity value of the policies? And what about those policyholders who stopped paying their premiums after the company was placed under judicial management? To what level will they be paid? These questions are still hanging in the air.
It is hardly likely that the policyholders will receive their full benefits. They are more likely to be refunded what they put into the company, and this is only fair, for they must not expect to emerge out of this process without being scathed.
But for the bruising that they took, the losses that they would have incurred, and the nation-wide effects of the collapse of CLICO( Guyana) the least that should be expected is for those who were responsible for illegally moving monies out of Guyana to be prosecuted under the laws of Guyana.
In the United States, top executives of ENRON have been sentenced. They were held accountable for their actions. Over in Trinidad, the demands are being made for persons to be held accountable and face the consequences for the problems of CLICO in that country.
The Trinidad government will cause an inquiry to be established and when this is done, there will be more information as to how the money from CLICO
( Guyana) left these shores, since critical information on the Guyana operations is believed to be in Trinidad.
When that country’s investigation gets going, the Guyanese reporters are going to encamp in Port of Spain because they know that what will come out from that investigation will cause ripples and shockwaves in Guyana, unless of course Guyana takes the lead and undertakes its own investigation into just what happened that caused CLICO ( Guyana) to run  bankrupt.

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