Gail Alexander
The liabilities of Clico have climbed from a reported $23 billion in 2010 to $30 billion in 2014, according to chairman of the Clico Stakeholders Alliance (CSA) David Walker.
Walker confirmed the figure as the new group, CSA, prepared for its formal launch today at Cascadia Hotel, at 2 pm. The group, which involves British American stakeholders, has been in the making recently.
Word on the group arose last month when CL Financial’s (CLF) majority shareholder, Lawrence Duprey, signalled he was heading to legal action following non-response from Government on his proposal to repay the debt owed to Government from the 2009 Clico bailout following CLF’s collapse.
Yesterday, Walker said: “The CSA has been formed to bring all affected parties together to lobby for the end of Central Bank control through a recognition of the fact that firstly taxpayers and secondly all other parties continue to suffer through continuation of a failed policy.
“We advocate a return to respect for the laws of T&T, certain that a legal plan is the only route to a final solution.
“Our founding document describes the mandate as to restore CLF to private sector control, to ensure that taxpayers are fully reimbursed in respect of the Government’s intervention in CLF and to implement a strategy that fully respects and acknowledges CLF’s contractual obligations to policy holders,”
Walker said at today’s launch the group would be citing the implications of the latest liability figure and dealing with a number of other inconsistencies in Government statements on the issue.
He said in October 2010, the then PP administration said Clico had a deficit of $7 billion: Assets of over $16 billion and liabilities of over $23 billion.
“But in the latest Clico accounts (December 2014), the latest liabilities figure is $30 billion, so after spending taxpayers’ monies Clico owed more than that it did at the start,”
Walker added: “In October 2010, our prime minister told us that rescuing Clico legally would cost $14 billion. She chose instead to execute an illegal plan that cost more than $20 billion. Taxpayers are the clear losers. Every other stakeholder in Clico also loses and the losses will continue until we have legal closure. Our tax dollars should not be exposed to unquantified business risk.
“Even in 2009, at the lowest point in the company’s operations, its ‘traditional’ business was hugely profitable, like every other major insurance business in the country.
“Now, after seven years of intervention, that has been turned into a loss maker (Clico accounts 2014). Further Central Bank control means unending losses and more pain. It continues to cost us about $5 million every day according to those 2014 accounts.”
He said CSA would be calling on people to join the exercise, “those who desire to see this burden removed from the backs of long suffering taxpayers and others.”
The Finance Ministry on Monday confirmed there had been no sign of legal action from Duprey or any other groups. A spokesman said the ministry continued to be in talks with the Clico representatives and talks were “cordial and functioning.”