Agents of CLICO (Guyana) yesterday gathered outside of the company’s Camp Street Head Office to protest against the non-payment of their commissions and to express their disappointment at the manner in which they were being treated by the management of the embattled company.
The company has fallen on hard times ever since it was discovered that its US$34 million investment in CLICO (Bahamas) was tied up in real estate in Florida.
These agents told this newspaper that they have not been paid since January. Stabroek News was told that about 60 such persons have been affected.
Agent Don Johnson stated that it was ridiculous that the employees of the company had been paid and that even the dismissed employees were given severance packages, while they were being ignored by the company. He said efforts to ascertain from Assistant Manager Geeta Singh-Knight and from its Judicial Manager Maria van Beek as to when they will be paid have not been successful.
Efforts made yesterday by this newspaper to contact Judicial Manager van Beek for comment proved futile.
Johnson said that he could not understand the rationale for not paying the employees. He stated that the very fact that the firm had clients was because of the work of the agents. He opined that the agents were being made to suffer from bad practices by the management of the company.”They are behaving as if we caused the financial woes of the company”, he added.
One agent in expressing his frustration at his non-payment said “imagine they could have paid the staff twice since January and they couldn’t pay us even once…this is unfair”
Several of the agents expressed their frustrations at the manner in which they were being treated. One sales representative Haresh Ramsamooj opined that the agents were being perpetually fed with a pack of lies, a statement which was echoed several times as the various agents spoke to this newspaper.
CLICO (Guyana) was placed under Judicial Management on February 25 after CLICO (Bahamas) was put into liquidation. Geeta Singh-Knight, the former CEO of the company has since been appointed as van Beek’s Assistant Manager. The Bahamian company held 53% of the local company’s assets and this put its liquidity position under enormous strain. It is unclear whether the company would be able to retrieve any part of its US$34 million investment from the Bahamian company but the government here has said that no current policyholder or investor will lose out.
Local authorities have expressed hope that Guyana will retrieve this investment but hope of this occurring continues to grow dimmer. On Tuesday, the Bahamian company was ordered wound up by Justice Cheryl Albury which means that all of the company’s assets will be sold to pay off its creditors. The remaining assets, if any are available, will be distributed to the principals of the company.