At the time the troubled insurance company was placed under judicial management, it had 14,900 insurance policies, 90 members of staff and approximately 65 agents, its Judicial Manager Maria van Beek had revealed.
A single mother of two, who requested anonymity, related her frustration at the Clico matter and even expressed doubt that she would ever get back the money she invested. The pace of the ongoing case in the High Court has not offered her much hope.
The woman has been a policy holder in the company since 2005 and was making payments on a monthly basis. She expressed her disappointment that after investing so much it has reaped no benefits for her and her family. She also lamented the lack of communication from the company and said that only once was any formal correspondence sent to her.
Meanwhile, she also told this newspaper about the experience of her mother. Her mother, a teacher, had signed up for one of those policies specially targeted at teachers. Since the unfolding of the drama with the insurance company, her mother has not been experiencing the best of health. However, she can no longer afford to seek medical attention at a private hospital as she could have done previously when she was covered by Clico. Private hospitals are no longer accepting cards from the company. This particular development is believed to have impacted several of the clients of the insurance company.
Cases such as these are what bother Philip Chance, a former Clico agent. Despite not being paid his commissions in addition to having his pension tied up in the company, Chance is most concerned about the money his clients would have invested. An agent with the company since 1995, he has dozens of clients, several of whom he said never wanted insurance in the first place. After working years to build up his clientele, Chance now feels a sense of duty to them especially those who would have had significant investments within the company. Perhaps it is the fact that he had told many of his clients following the issues with CL Financial in Trinidad that all was well with Clico (Guyana) and that there was no reason to fear. This was based on the assurance he and other agents were given by the company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Geeta Singh-Knight that the company was solid and that its Statutory Fund was sound.
The agent told Stabroek News that investing in Clico was attractive since it offered packages that other insurance companies in the country were not offering.
He said several teachers had taken out policies at the company because of a special package it had. Chance opined that the company would have survived if its management had adhered to the local Insurance Act and invested the majority of its assets locally. He also said he found it strange that the same CEO who had mismanaged the company has been allowed to stay on in the same capacity at the establishment.
Chance is now engaged in a private businesses enterprise but he is paying close attention to the court case involving the government and the Clico directors.
According to him, whenever the liquidation order is granted the company’s assets should be disposed of in a proper manner and at their correct value.
Asked if he felt the Clico issue had damaged the insurance industry in Guyana, the man answered in the negative saying that people still view insurance as important especially in providing financial security for their relatives.
While Chance has shifted totally away from the insurance field, some of the fired agents from Clico (Guyana) have moved on to other insurance agencies. Stabroek News understands that they are still owed commissions and that their pension payments are still tied up in the company.
When Stabroek News contacted former employees of the institution they declined to speak saying that they had moved on. This newspaper was unable to find out whether they had received all the benefits owed to them.
The fallout with the local insurance company began after it came under a liquidity strain following the collapse of Clico (Bahamas).
The local company had invested $6.9 billion in Clico (Bahamas) which represented 53 per cent of the local company’s assets. Although these investments were liquid on paper, subsequent investigations revealed that this sum has been tied up in real estate investments that Clico (Bahamas) had in Florida through subsidiaries. When Clico (Bahamas) was ordered liquidated on February 24 last year, the local company was subsequently placed under judicial management. The judicial manager then recommend that the company be wound up which a legal team representing the directors of the institution is currently challenging in the High Court.
