"You know Catholic churches have a bazaar annually and they have a bran tub and you go and you put your hand into the bran tub and you pick up and you go. That is how loans were dispersed, like that and that was the end of it, it was a bran tub situation," Assam told the Clico/HCU commission of enquiry.
Assam is one of the founders of CIB, which was a subsidiary of CL Financial.
Assam is currently Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary with responsibility for trade and investment in the People's partnership government.
He quit CIB in 1995 following disagreements with CL Financial executive chairman Lawrence Duprey and also because he was returning to active politics to contest the general election as a candidate for the United National Congress (UNC).
He returned to CIB in 2008 as executive chairman following the resignation of Andre Monteil.
Assam said in February 2007 Monteil's private company, Stone Street Capital, was granted a loan for $78 million that was not booked on CIB's financial records until a year later.
He said when he returned to CIB the financial shortcomings had was destroying the institution like a cancer.
"I would suspect that it was almost in my opinion like a cancer that had started sometime before and the cancer was becoming a little more aggressive and I was hoping that I would be able to do something to arrest the spread of that cancer and bring it back to remission," Assam said.
Assam blamed lax regulations for the collapse of CIB and blamed the Central Bank and auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers for allowing the collapse.
Queen's Counsel Bankim Thanki defended the Central Bank saying it asked the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to take action against CIB for the late filing of financial reports. He added that CLICO also refused to allow the Central Bank on its premises to conduct an on site audit.
However Assam maintained that the bank was negligent, noting that just weeks before the collapse "these very persons were granted a provisional licence by the Central Bank to open up another financial institution in San Fernando."
Assam added, "If the Central Back were carrying out its business as it ought to have been carried out it is my view that they could not have accepted these things."
Assam is one of the founders of CIB, which was a subsidiary of CL Financial.
Assam is currently Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary with responsibility for trade and investment in the People's partnership government.
He quit CIB in 1995 following disagreements with CL Financial executive chairman Lawrence Duprey and also because he was returning to active politics to contest the general election as a candidate for the United National Congress (UNC).
He returned to CIB in 2008 as executive chairman following the resignation of Andre Monteil.
Assam said in February 2007 Monteil's private company, Stone Street Capital, was granted a loan for $78 million that was not booked on CIB's financial records until a year later.
He said when he returned to CIB the financial shortcomings had was destroying the institution like a cancer.
"I would suspect that it was almost in my opinion like a cancer that had started sometime before and the cancer was becoming a little more aggressive and I was hoping that I would be able to do something to arrest the spread of that cancer and bring it back to remission," Assam said.
Assam blamed lax regulations for the collapse of CIB and blamed the Central Bank and auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers for allowing the collapse.
Queen's Counsel Bankim Thanki defended the Central Bank saying it asked the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to take action against CIB for the late filing of financial reports. He added that CLICO also refused to allow the Central Bank on its premises to conduct an on site audit.
However Assam maintained that the bank was negligent, noting that just weeks before the collapse "these very persons were granted a provisional licence by the Central Bank to open up another financial institution in San Fernando."
Assam added, "If the Central Back were carrying out its business as it ought to have been carried out it is my view that they could not have accepted these things."
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