Guyanese President Bharrat Jagdeo says the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has agreed to set aside US$15 million from the Caribbean Petroleum Fund for CLICO (Guyana) to close the liability-asset gap of the local company. It's in response to appeals Jadgeo made at the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain earlier this month. He told his counterparts in the Americas it was not fair that CARICOM was putting US$50 million from the petroleum fund into a special facility to deal with Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) countries that had problems with British American (Insurance Company) and CLICO, since it is a regional problem that needs a regional solution.
Authorities declared CLICO Guyana insolvent on April 14th, with liabilities exceeding assets by US$7.87 million. If the company is wound up, the gap between liabilities and assets could rise to as much as US$58.2 million.
"I argued for an additional US$15 million to come from that fund and to come to Guyana, and they have agreed that US$15M will come from the petroleum fund to Guyana to assist with CLICO," Jagdeo said.
He added that the injection of these funds, in addition to other measures already taken by his government - including paying policyholders by cash and withholding payment to the parent company in Trinidad - would reduce the company's liability-asset gap even further and possibly eliminate it altogether.
"I could conceivably see a time when we would not have to use a cent of taxpayers' money to deal with CLICO," President Jagdeo said.
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