Latest update April 24th, 2024 12:59 AM
Apr 04, 2017 News
General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), Bharrat Jagdeo, is of the
opinion that if the Colonial Life Insurance Company (CLICO) is granted a return pass to Guyana, it should settle all outstanding debts – plus interest.
Jagdeo made this assertion during a press conference hosted at the PPP/C Headquarters, Freedom House yesterday.
Eight years ago, CLICO went belly-up resulting in shockwaves throughout Guyana and the Region.
The man who was in the middle of it – Lawrence Duprey – has signalled his intention to invest once more here, with hopes of coming to a resolution with government on how the State can recoup more than $5B the company owes.
The PPP/C during its tenure, wrapped up bankruptcy proceedings here, taking over a number of buildings and using tax dollars to pay off thousands of policy holders.
Last week, Minister of Finance Winston Jordan met with Duprey, with the latter making known his intention to renew his relationship with Guyana.
Duprey is apparently eyeing the financial and housing market in Guyana. Both the Minister of
Finance and Duprey and his team agreed to a follow-up meeting.
According to Jordan, Duprey also said that CL Financial – CLICO’s parent company – will try to make amends for the approximately US$40M debt owed mainly to Guyana’s National Insurance Scheme (NIS). It was money from the NIS that was invested in a subsidiary of CLICO in the Bahamas which has been deemed unrecoverable. The money had represented losses of income for NIS and severely threatened the scheme’s long-term viability.
Jagdeo said yesterday that when CLICO collapsed, there were devastating consequences for most countries in the region where policyholders lost millions of dollars.
“In some countries, even Trinidad and Tobago, they did not return people’s money at face-value; they return their money at discount. In Guyana’s case, we made a commitment that we will return every depositor’s money at face value. That was the difference between us. So people will not lose their principal sums invested.”
Jagdeo added that the PPP government subsequently looked at all the assets in the initial period and sold some, which cleared off most of what was owed to the small policyholders.
“I had spoken to Trinidad and we had gotten $15M (US) from the petroleum facility to come into this as a grant. So all of these things need to be put into the equation to show how we managed
it.” Jagdeo said.
The former President said that if the Government agrees that CLICO should clear all the liabilities, they should take into consideration some G$7B obtained from assets the PPP government would have sold.
This money he said is “sitting” in accounts and can be used to offset these liabilities.
“They may not have to put in much more. But my point is, the US$15M that we used as a grant from Trinidad and Tobago has to be recovered, because that did not come in specifically for CLICO, and then if we look at the loss of income – because we gave (repaid) people (policyholders) at face-value, and NIS would have lost the investment income – the interest over the years.
They (CLICO) can’t only settle the outstanding principal sums but also all the loss of income that people would have suffered because of the collapse of CLICO Financial. If all of those things are done properly in a framework, we will support it wholeheartedly…This has to be done properly,” Jagdeo said.
LISTEN HOW JAGDEO WILL MAKE ALL GUYANESE RICH!!!
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