Dear Editor,
What transpired at the Clico meeting between Mr Chris Ram and the President is regrettable. It appears that the government wants to bring closure to the matter by finding a way to repay the policyholders and investors who lost their money in that ponzi-like scheme. People need to quickly recoup their investment. They don’t care whether President Jagdeo or an official from the Bank of Guyana presided over the meeting with shareholders and committed to compensating them. People want their money back. That is the bottom line. Anything else is befuddling the issue. They don’t worry much about how the money is obtained or who is repaying them the money.
If I were a shareholder or an insurance policyholder with Clico, I would feel very comfortable in having the President address the meeting and make a commitment to repay me. In this way, I would have ease of mind about recovering my investment. And if the payout is expedited, as the President has committed to, more power to those who find the money to pay. While Mr Ram made some valid points in his commentary in Sunday Stabroek (September 19), I applaud the government for finding a way to help investors recover their money expeditiously. I seriously doubt policyholders would query whose money the government is using to repay them.
Let me note that as in Guyana, the government of neighbouring Trinidad has committed to repaying investors, bank depositors and insurance policyholders a portion (TT$75,000) of the money lost in Clico now and further payments over the next 20 years (some people invested millions of TT dollars in Clico which was paying one of the highest interest rates in the world). Finance Minister Winston Dookeran, in presenting the budget two weeks ago said investors would have to assume some losses. In Trinidad, unlike Guyana so far, the new (Kamla Persad-Bissessar led) government is using taxpayers’ money to compensate policyholders. Overall, Trinis lost some TT$12 billion or almost US$2 billion (G$400 billion) as compared with less than G$5 billion lost by Guyanese investors. So investors in Guyana are lucky to recoup almost their full investment.
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram
