IF CLICO IS IN TROUBLE WITH THEIR HOME OFFICE - WHAT CAN WE EXPECT HERE IN BELIZE?

Barbadians' pensions in serious peril, says former PM

Published on Tuesday, February 10, 2009

By Oscar Ramjeet
Caribbean Net News Special Correspondent
Email: oscar@caribbeannetnews.com

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados: Former Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur has accused the government of posturing instead of stating the facts as it relates to CLICO Holdings Barbados Limited.
The Barbados Nation reported that Arthur told a packed hall in Speightstown, St Peter, on Sunday that the Barbados-based CLICO Holdings could not be well if its parent company, CL Financial, was ailing
CL Financial in Trinidad and Tobago had to seek a bailout from the Trinidad and Tobago government after its cash-strapped position was revealed on January 30, and Arthur told the audience, "Am I to understand that they should not be a change in the mind and management of CLICO in Barbados, too?”

He said that, given the situation, both Prime Minister David Thompson and the head of CLICO Holdings Barbados, Leroy Parris, needed "to come clean with the public of Barbados" and give the facts instead of posturing.

Saying that the problems with CLICO had only now started, Arthur, a former Minister of Finance, said that people's pensions and insurance policies could be "in serious peril".

He said the company was highly leveraged and explained that, when it was in that position, it had a large amount of debt "because of bad business practices".

Arthur questioned how it could be a problem in Trinidad, but it is "all right here?"

He urged the government to state if the statutory fund, as required by the Insurance Act, is "full and complete for the purpose of giving people the confidence that their pensions are good and the insurance policies are sound.”

“Give us the facts. Publish the facts," he said.

Arthur commended the Trinidad government for stepping in and acknowledging there was a problem and finding ways to deal with them.

He added that the time had come that CLICO insurance must be made fully solvent to protect the pension holders in Barbados. He said that the same thing the government of Trinidad was prepared to do; the Barbados government must also be prepared to do.

“You must not be left adrift,” he said.