Nizam Ali and Company Ltd, Globe Trust liquidators will turn over unclaimed funds to the Bank of Guyana by the end of this month; there is a substantial amount of cheques still to be uplifted.
Of the 3,045 small depositors, just around 900 persons have been reimbursed and since the payouts for large depositors commenced a short while ago just a few persons have turned up. Globe Trust has 914 large depositors on file, which are the persons with accounts in excess of $100,000, and to date only 385 cheques have been picked up.
The Bank of Guyana will hold all unclaimed funds for one year, in keeping with the Bank of Guyana Act 1995 before the funds go to the general reserves. Depositors who show up after this period has lapsed would have to apply to the Accountant General to reclaim the funds; the Accountant General would issue an order for the refund after the application is processed.
Nizam Ali published a notice in the daily newspapers last week alerting depositors that they have until March 28 to reclaim funds before the money is turned over to the Central Bank. Ali told Stabroek News yesterday that the payouts have slowed up.
He said unclaimed funds are also in the trust funds including the Education Trust Fund and the Property Management funds. According to Ali, several cheques are sitting at his Camp Street office waiting to be picked up.
Ali acknowledged that some of the depositors are likely deceased. However, he said, the funds could easily be claimed by their respective estates. He observed that persons with letters of administration have also been turning up at the office to uplift the payments.
Last October, some $45 million was made available for the payouts to small depositors of the bankrupt institution following a court ruling by Chief Justice (ag) Ian Chang. Recently, the way was cleared for payouts to large depositors.
Ali is still fighting to reclaim millions of dollars in unpaid Globe Trust debts. The majority of Globe Trust debtors have ignored repeated calls to repay, and only a tiny fraction of the $750 million handed out in unsecured loans has been recovered.
The majority of the court cases which the company filed are against former directors of the institution, two of whom are now deceased. Matters had been filed against former Chief Executive Officer, Stephen Backer; Jonas Sampson who is deceased; Peter Britton who is also deceased and Loaknauth Persaud among others.
