The Colonial Life Insurance Company (CLICO) has requested information to back claims of debts owed to Guyana from the Central Bank here.
Chairman of C.L. Financial (parent company of CLICO), Lawrence Duprey recently indicated that he would like to renew his relationship with Guyana and committed to making amends for the debt owed after CLICO collapsed in 2009.
According to Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan, “his people (Duprey) have already contacted the Bank of Guyana for information and my understanding is that the Bank of Guyana is assembling the information that is required. Is a long list of information he requires.” He was at the time engaging media operatives after the commissioning of the new Bureau of Statistics building in the capital city on Friday, April 07, 2017.
The Minister also disclosed that the company is interested in investing in the housing sector, “because he is aware that we are into a housing drive…I told him we are interested in highly value added from local.”
Jordan explained that after the information is supplied and the company repay the monies owed, “the investment will go through the regular scrutiny and so forth and then we’ll be able to say ‘yay’ or ‘nay’ when we see what’s on the table.”
Recently, Former President, Bharrat Jagdeo under whose Presidency the company was liquidated here, noted that it needs to settle its outstanding debts before being afforded the opportunity to re-enter the local market.
At a Press Conference on Monday, (April 03, 2017) Jadgeo, the current leader of the political Opposition noted that “they can’t only settle the outstanding principal sums, but also at the loss income that people would have suffered because of the collapse of CLICO financial. If all of those things are done properly in a framework, we will support it wholeheartedly.”
He also made assertions that some monies recovered from CLICO Guyana assets are still available to aid the company in settling its debts.
On Friday, Minister Jordan used the opportunity to debunked such claims, noting that they are “totally untrue” and promised additional details in a subsequent statement.
