OFFICIAL Opposition Leader Philip 'Brave' Davis.
OPPOSITION Leader Phillip Davis yesterday called the $2.8 million premium paid by the government to renew its Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility policy a “colossal waste.”
Mr Davis told The Tribune the Minnis administration should have listened to its technical staff before renewing the tropical cyclone policy, and scoffed at reports the government intended to renegotiate the payouts from the Caribbean disaster insurance facility.
"It's just a mad shop folly," he said, "when you ignore historical facts and good advice. You should have listened to your technical staff. And you don't pay and then re-negotiate, where is that done? You negotiate and come to an agreement that's favourable in the first instance, and then you pay."
Mr Davis continued: "(Prime Minister Dr Hubert) Minnis claimed that we missed getting a payout for Matthew. We still (disagree with that statement). He said he would table the letter (from CCRIF), he hasn't done it yet. What we left in place, which was still open (with CCRIF), was our agitation about how unfair the process was, particularly for the Bahamas.
"This year for the first time they introduced (the ADC), and what that is, is if you are a member and they see that you had losses they'll give you some pennies. Irma didn't trigger the policy at all," he said.
"This is a colossal waste and you get $234,000 and you bragging on that."
K Peter Turnquest, the deputy prime minister and minister of finance, told Tribune Business on Wednesday the government wanted to revise the payout “trigger points” with the CCRIF by dividing the Bahamas into zones, to maximise the potential insurance payout following a major hurricane.
CCRIF announced on Tuesday that it would make a total of US$29.6 million to six Caribbean governments affected by Hurricane Irma under their TC policies, with the Bahamas and Haiti receiving payments as a result of a new feature.
The new feature, Aggregate Deductible Cover (ADC), was introduced in this policy year as a means to help members when modelled losses do not trigger a payout despite observed losses on the ground, the statement explained.
According to CCRIF, the Bahamas will receive US$234,000.
Mr Davis said: "The first thing you want to remember is that this CCRIF, that was started in 2007 and we used to pay around $900,000 in premium. We realised its threshold to receive any benefits were such that we could never ever benefit. Once that realisation came to the fore, we had a committee formed by our government that included the Met Office people, finance people, the port people, and a couple other agencies to review this whole thing to determine whether it was prudent to continue.”
He added: "They said it was not prudent to continue, because of the nature of our country it's very unlikely that we'll ever be able to benefit from the insurance, hence we discontinued."
Comments
ThisIsOurs 7 years, 2 months ago
Hmm...would seem he's making sense...
sheeprunner12 7 years, 2 months ago
Yes, Brave is making sense ........... The Bahamas stretches the same distance as from Puerto Rico to Trinidad ......... Therefore we should be zoned to get optimum payout ....... How can 20+ countries benefit within a space that we cover and we cannot ....... This must be rectified
bahamalove 7 years, 2 months ago
Yes, the FNM government messed up big time on this issue! Everyone knows that the insurance industry is the biggest scam out there. They will do everything in their power to deny a claim or pay as little as possible. I would sooner trust the webshop boys before I trust the insurance industry.
DDK 7 years, 2 months ago
IRMA COULD have triggered the policy. the majority of Bahamas .including the most densely populated and built up capital were, fortunately, spared this time!
Insurance entities do not like to lose any of their premiums, granted, but the alternative to having no insurance and having catastrophic losses is very grim. In the interest of transparency have the terms and conditions of the policy been made public?
"Cayman Islands-based CCRIF (formerly the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility) will make payments totalling US$29.6 million to six Caribbean nations recovering from Hurricane Irma.
CCRIF’s parametric tropical cyclone insurance policies will pay $6.8 million to Antigua & Barbuda; $6.5 million to Anguilla; $2.3 million to St. Kitts & Nevis; $13.6 million to Turks & Caicos Islands; $162,000 to Haiti, and $234,000 to The Bahamas." INSURANCE JOURNAL.
ThisIsOurs 7 years, 2 months ago
His point may have been that given the way they classify the Bahamas, the probability of us ever getting a full benefit payment was very low. Is it possible that it would take extensive damage to ALL of the islands for us to see the level of payouts the Caribbean Islands do? If that is the case, I can see them looking at the premium as not worth it. He's also right about his assessment of Turnquest's statement, if the admin wanted to negotiate a policy where the Bahamas was divided into zones, they should have done that prior to paying the premium. I'm not sure theyre conducting proper due diligence, in general..I hope they get it together soon
truetruebahamian 7 years, 2 months ago
Maybe the insurance should have been made through the people bleeding gaming houses? They were allowed to be consuming poor peoples money with the plp (plunder, loot and pillage party) With nothing left after they lose their fortunes they want money to cover their misguided decisions from government or those who see the fallacy of these gambling institutions - Let them suffer their fate and should their offspring or themselves try to get money from decent non gambling persons and those people be harmed - that is the way it is. That is what is deserved.No regrets, no worries. Let Craig and Sebas and the rest of those low lifes deal with the outcome.
MassExodus 7 years, 2 months ago
The only thing that is 'Colossal Waste' is Philip Davis and what his PLP did last term...
SP 7 years, 2 months ago
Seconded!
sheeprunner12 7 years, 2 months ago
Amen, brother!!!!!! ........ Sit small Obeah Man
BahamasForBahamians 7 years, 2 months ago
What a fooking idiot this exodus guy.
The tax payers are on the hook for upwards of 2 million and this @$$hole is still talking about the past.
Idiots like you should be banned come from the comments section.
C2B 7 years, 2 months ago
Since when has insurance been a way to solve national problems? Insurance is for accidents; as in they are unpredictable and rare. Hurricanes are predictable and happen often enough that they need to be planned for. That is what national lotteries and taxes should be used for. Kudos to the insurance company for finding a bunch of suckers to sell this to. Notice they aren't selling snow storm insurance to the Swiss and Germans. Do they offer "bad government" insurance? I can just imagine the premiums.
sheeprunner12 7 years, 2 months ago
Agreed ......... but the PLP decided to set up the Numbers Mafia instead ...... That travesty should be repealed and the National Lottery created for a sovereign fund against such natural disasters ....... Gatta do something before the OECD screw us for good.
sealice 7 years, 2 months ago
He would be an expert on wasting money ........
BahamasForBahamians 7 years, 2 months ago
I note the FNM supporters are all getting their panties in a bunch when reports of wasted moneys and inefficiencies within their government are exposed.
Saddle up fookers, you have 4 more years to be held accountable.
Offtopic: Hurricane Maria is on the way - lets see how many of these evacuation flights are given to SKY Bahamas - again.
licks2 7 years, 2 months ago
Yes. . .there are 4 more years. . .the PLP will not be in existence after those years at the rate yall are getting exposed for corruptions. . .who are not disgusted in the eyes of the public. . .will be in jail for their many crimes!! I believe you do understand how insurances go. . .yall PLP stopped the policy. . .this is a new one. . .you only paid for what? One or two months? And yinna expect to claim for what? Plenty years? Lol!
yari 7 years, 2 months ago
But hurricane season isn't over yet so why is he gloating? I don't want us to prove him wrong by suffering extensive damage but how can he be saying I told you so already? Too busy trying to score points against the current government and not sufficiently concerned with the well-being of the people he used to 'serve'.
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