Parliament has approved a bill that will provide an arrangement or legal framework to aid in the resolution of the insolvency of British American Insurance Company Ltd (BAICO) and Colonial Insurance Company (CLICO).
The bill which is called, ‘Plan of Arrangement BAICO/CLICO Act 2016’was brought before Parliament by Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Roosevelt Skerrit on Monday.
“We took a decision in the monetary council that it would be in the best interest of the region and the investors at this time to proceed with seeking to recoup some of the monies that people have invested,” Skerrit said. “That is what we have been doing. “We have gotten some monies from the $100 million from Trinidad and Tobago, but they still have an outstanding amount, I believe of 50 or so million dollars for us, and this is why we have not been able to settle some more people because we are waiting for the $50-million.”
Skerrit added, “If we have gotten the $50 million we would have taken care of a number of other investors in respect to BAICO.”
In respect to CLICO, he noted, that the government of Barbados had made an earlier commitment that they would have treated all of CLICO’s membership and investments the same.
“There would have been no discrimination in respect to Barbadian resident citizens and OECS citizens including Dominica…,” Skerrit remarked. “They submitted a proposal to us and the moment I saw this proposal I saw there is no way Dominica could support this proposal from the government of Barbados, because it was not sufficiently addressing the concerns and the interests of Dominican persons who have invested in CLICO and we turned it down.”
He added, “This is why we have moved the courts and this is why we are saying in this arrangement in respect to CLICO, that we will subject the resolution to the courts of Barbados.”
Parliamentary Representative for the Roseau Central constituency, Joseph Isaac, said it would be good to have more information as to where Dominica is in terms of the financial situation with the investors.
“I am saying this in context of a strategy, a policy moving forward,” he said.
He stated further that he disagrees with the Honourable Minister of Trade however when he said it’s not the government’s responsibility in the matter.
“I would rather say Honourable Minister it is not the government fault if an investor fails to meet his or her obligation, however since his investments and his savings, then we still have a responsibility to ensure that we can mitigate against the pain and also ensuring that the people who have invested at least get back something in a timely manner,” he argued.
He called on his constituents to be patient and to inform them that he have endorsed and welcomed this Bill.
Meantime Tourism Minister Senator Robert Tonge said on an annual basis he is aware that the insurance regulators in Dominica go to all the insurance companies to ensure that the outstanding claims, the un-earn premiums are placed and are available in the respective insurance funds, “so that in the event of a company going broke your funds are available.”
“The insurance regulators also ensures that those funds remain in Dominica and not in any other territory, so that the issue that happened with CLICO and BICO will be a thing of the past, whereby those monies were placed in accounts in other countries,” he explained. “Right now those funds are located in Dominica, so in case a company went belly-up it means the regulators have access to the insurance funds in Dominica to take care of your claims that have not been processed and also the portion of your premium that has not been earned.”
In addition to that Tonge said the investment companies cannot use those funds as they used in the past.
No comments.
People cannot understand substantive issues and they cannot see an easy angle to attack Skerrit.
Therefore this will slide down the list of articles and die a death.
DNO shouldn’t have bothered. Lets get back on regular programming.