The Tribune

By SANCHESKA DORSETT

Tribune Staff Reporter

sdorsett@tribunemedia.net

OPPOSITION Leader Philip 'Brave" Davis denied yesterday that the Progressive Liberal Party allowed the country's Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility to lapse, telling reporters that the former government withdrew from the CCRIF "after careful consideration" and advice from several government agencies.

At a press conference in the Minority Room at the House of Assembly, Mr Davis said after the country was denied a claim made to the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) following the passage of Hurricane Joaquin in 2015, a committee formed from technical officers in the Ministry of Finance, the Met Department and the Port Department, found that it was "ineffective to continue with insurance" from the CCRIF and said “it would be more cost effective if the government self-insured.”

In fact, Mr Davis said the committee found that "premiums paid to CCRIF would've been better placed into an account to assist with hurricane disaster relief."

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis told parliamentarians the former government missed out on a more than $31m insurance payout because it opted not to pay the country’s premium to CCRIF.

On Thursday, Mr Davis challenged Dr Minnis to release the file from the committee and let their findings be made public.

"That committee opined that it was ineffective to continue with insurance from CCRIF and that it would be more cost efficient that the government be self-insured. That same committee, following Hurricane Matthew and after an intervention by CCRIF, came back with that same conclusion that had the government remained in that insurance we would not have benefited because of the terms of the insurance," Mr Davis said.

"I will call on him (Dr Minnis) to pull the file and release the information from the file of the technical team that advised the government and to make it known. If it's a government of transparency, then pull the file. Don't' just read the letter that they read in Parliament but look at all the antecedent documents that led to decisions made by the government. The advice was for government to self-insure as it does for most of the buildings it owns now. “This building (House of Assembly) is not insured. The Ministry of Works is not insured; they have their own, self-insurance in some form or fashion. The advice was that premiums paid to CCRIF would've been better placed into account to assist with hurricane disaster relief."

Last October, then Minister of State for Finance Michael Halkitis told Parliament that the Christie administration ceased financial contributions to the CCRIF because the Bahamas would only have received compensation in the event of a category five hurricane.

Mr Halkitis said the Bahamas would not have received any Hurricane Matthew relief from the Caribbean disaster insurance fund because the storm was not strong enough to trigger a payout.

The former Golden Isles MP said that while the Bahamas has been a member of CCRIF for many years, it has never been able to access any relief funding under the facility.

On Tuesday, Dr Minnis read portions of a letter he received on May 31, 2017 from the chief executive officer of the CCRIF. Dr Minnis said what this letter revealed about the insurance was shocking.

Dr Minnis told Parliament: “He (the CEO) wrote: ‘We are pleased that the Bahamas has been a member of CCRIF since its inception in 2007. We are pleased that the government purchased tropical cyclone (hurricane) policies every year between 2007 and 2014 and also purchased policies for both tropical cyclones and excess rainfall for the 2015/2016 policy year.

“‘However, we deeply regret that the government decided not to renew its CCRIF policies for the 2016/2017 year resulting in the Bahamas missing out on two CCRIF payouts from Tropical Cyclone Matthew.’ I note that the annual policy for this insurance facility was approximately $900,000. I was shocked by what the CEO of the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility went on to say in his letter.

“He stated: ‘Based on the registered losses, it means that had the government of the Bahamas renewed its tropical cyclone policy for 2016/2017, using the previous year’s policy conditions, the policy would have triggered, resulting in a payout of approximately US$31.8 million, equal to the coverage limit.’”