Recover economic cost for CLICO’s mess or declare Duprey persona non grata - Ram

Recover economic cost for CLICO’s mess or declare Duprey persona non grata – Ram

Apr 02, 2017 News

By Abena Rockcliffe-Campbell
Colonial Life Insurance Company (CLICO)’s Lawrence Duprey has taken a lot from Guyana. A simple apology and a promise to repay is not good enough. The government should demand more based on respect for its people.

Financial Analyst, Christopher Ram

That in essence is a synopsis of the points of view articulated by financial analyst Christopher Ram. His expressions came as he lamented the audacity of Duprey to return to Guyana with an investment proposal several years after “causing so much harm.”
Ram stressed that Duprey acted dishonorably in the past and should not be accepted with open arms.
It has been eight years since regional insurance giant, CLICO went belly-up and Duprey was the man in the middle of it all. But now Duprey, the major shareholder of parent company CL Financial, wants to go into another business venture in Guyana.
Two Thursdays ago, Minister of Finance Winston Jordan met with Duprey. A statement from the Minister’s office indicated that Duprey wants to “renew his relationship with Guyana as well as publicly apologize to its people for the collapse of CLICO Guyana”.
Duprey told Jordan that CL Financial will try to make amends for the approximately US$40M debt owed mainly to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS).
While Jordan committed to further meetings and the statement from his Ministry carried a somewhat accepting tone towards Duprey, Ram thinks that the government ought to take a firm stance.
“That man should be declared persona non grata until he returns all the money that he so improperly and unlawfully took out of Guyana,” said Ram.
Sounding very passionate about the issue, the Chartered Accountant said that before allowing any investments, government should secure a concrete guarantee from Duprey that Guyana will be compensated.
Citing the fact that Duprey said he will make a public apology, Ram asserted, “The best apology is to return the money to people. That, in fact, is the only meaningful apology.”
The attorney-at-law continued, “Places like the NIS suffered immensely as a result of the loss of income for several years.”
The financial analyst said that Duprey should not be made only to give back Guyana what was left outstanding eight years ago. “We want to recover the economic loss, not only the financial loss,” said Ram.
To do so, Ram noted that Guyana can apply “a proper rate of exchange and a proper rate of interest and on that basis, we will determine what it is we have lost as a result of his breaching the laws of Guyana.”
Duprey is interested in investing in several areas here, including providing solar energy at competitive prices, affordable housing, clay brick and solar technology for housing, as well as introduce a financial model that will generate savings and alleviate poverty, the statement from the Ministry of Finance said.
Jordan informed Duprey that he will apprise Cabinet of the discussions. He reportedly told Duprey that future engagements could be conducted on parallel tracks, especially as it relates to recovering monies owed by CL Financial and investment in Guyana.
Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry said that the Governor of the Bank of Guyana, Dr. Gobind Ganga will be consulted to determine the status of all outstanding matters relevant to CLICO Guyana.
Last year, Government announced a $5.6B long-term financing for NIS to help the entity recover its investments in CLICO. Jordan had stated that going to court to recover the $5B-plus for NIS may be useless. He emphasized that the sad reality is that the CLICO situation might very well turn out to be a long drawn-out process, as Guyana is not even on the radar when it comes to the settlement process in the Caribbean as yet.
“So Government is going to have to step up to the plate and find another way of recouping the losses for NIS in this regard.” Jordan had referred to the situation as another “mess” inherited from the PPP/C administration.
Government, in 2009, seized local properties from CLICO in Guyana to help pay policyholders, after it became clear that the regional insurance giant was in dire financial problems. Some 7,744 policyholders were paid a total of $4.1B.
One of the properties that NIS received was the one on Camp Street where the current headquarters of the Guyana Revenue Authority is located.