The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE Government was yesterday urged to “live up to its promises” to fully compensate CLICO victims after zero funds were allocated for this in next year’s Budget and successive fiscal years.

Bishop Simeon Hall, himself a victim of the insolvent life and health insurer’s collapse more than 15 years ago, told Tribune Business that while he “can understand the scarcity of funds” available to the Government it still needed to fulfill its commitment especially since weak to non-existent regulation played a large part in CLICO’s failure.

He spoke out after the 2024-2025 Budget, tabled in the House of Assembly last week, revealed that the Government has allocated not a single cent to the payment of “CLICO obligations” in the upcoming fiscal year or the 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 Budget cycles.

This newspaper understands that CLICO victims last received a payout from the Government almost two years, and materials accompanying last week’s Budget show none of the $3.8m allocated for compensation during the current 2023-2024 fiscal year had been paid out as at end-March 2024.

The last Christie administration, in the 2016 mid-year Budget, agreed and committed the Government to a plan where all surrendered life insurance policies, death benefits, medical claims and staff pensions would be paid in full.

Tribune Business sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that around $10m remains to be paid out to hundreds who surrendered their policies.

Simon Wilson, the Ministry of Finance’s financial secretary, could not be reached for comment before press time last night. However, it is thought likely that the Government, given its still-strained fiscal position, has decided to conserve cash and wait for Trinidad to pay the agreed $110.827m settlement to CLICO (Bahamas) and its liquidator.

That sum was offered by liquidators for the Bahamian insurer’s Trinidad-based parent, CL Financial, and Sir Ian Winder, the Supreme Court’s chief justice, last year gave Craig A. ‘Tony’ Gomez, the Baker Tilly Gomez accountant and principal, the go-ahead to accept it in his capacity as CLICO (Bahamas) liquidator.

The nine-figure sum represents a settlement of CLICO (Bahamas) claim against its Trinidadian parent. CL Financial had guaranteed $58m, or 79.5 percent, of the monies its Bahamian subsidiary had advanced to another group entity, CLICO Enterprises, which subsequently defaulted on the loan repayments. Mr Gomez thus argued that CLICO (Bahamas) was a secured creditor of CL Financial.

However, not a cent of the $110.827m has yet been received from Trinidad. The timing and amount of any payout depends on CL Financial’s liquidators, and the Trinidad courts, and neither Mr Gomez nor anyone in The Bahamas has control of this. As a result, it could be months and even some years yet before all or part of this money is paid out and received in The Bahamas.

Bishop Hall told Tribune Business that he personally knows “of several families where the CLICO policyholder died and never received a cent” as he called on the Government, which is continuous even though administrations change, to live up to the commitment made by the last Christie administration that has carried through into its Minnis and Davis successors.

He argued that the Government shoulders an extra obligation to CLICO victims given that, through the then-Registrar of Insurance and other regulators it had the responsibility of protecting Bahamian citizens and their life savings/retirement investments from such corporate failures.

“Oh boy. That is very disappointing. That is very disappointing. That is so disappointing,” Bishop Hall replied, when informed by Tribune Business that no funds for further payouts have been allocated in the Government’s Budget. “It is the Government who allowed it to happen. They should have protected the policy holders. They should have protected the small man who invested his couple of dollars.

“I got most of my money. I didn’t get every cent but I feel bad for those that did not get anything. I got two-thirds of my money back but what about the man down the street depending on it? The Government needs to do a better job of protecting Bahamian citizens from unscrupulous institutions.

“I can understand that it’s a tight Budget and there is a scarcity of funds. I can understand that, but I think the Government shares in this by not protecting the policy holders more than it did. It shouldn’t have happened. That’s how I feel. I think the Bahamian policyholders should call on the Government to live up to its promise.”

Mr Wilson told Tribune Business in June 2023 that the Government had slowed down payouts to former policyholders because the Government is hoping to “shortly make a major announcement on CLICO”.

He declined to go into details at the time on the basis it would be premature to do so, but said: “I think we should be in a position to make a major announcement on CLICO shortly. I just want to be cautious and not move prematurely. That’s one of the reasons we’ve slowed down the payouts.” It is thought that Mr Wilson was referring to the settlement from CL Financial.

Bishop Hall, though, argued that many CLICO policyholders yet to be fully or partially compensated cannot wait on Trinidad. “I know of several persons patiently waiting to get something out of CLICO,” he said. “I pray that the Government can find the money to keep that promise. And let’s pray that the money from Trinidad comes eventually.

“I know several families where the CLICO policyholder has died and they never received a cent of their money. I get perturbed when institutions that have a licence to operate from the Government could rob the poor and bilk the weak. This what causes some people to look at socialism.”

Bishop Hall added that “just last week” he contacted his MP for South Beach, Bacchus Rolle, to inquire whether he knew what was happening with CLICO compensation as he himself continues to receive calls from other victims about the situation.

He also questioned why The Bahamas appears soft on corporate, or white-collar, crime, and suggested Bahamians are “too passive” when wronged. “The man on the street does all kinds of things; he steals, he murders and we come down hard on him, but what about corporate institutions that exploit people?” Bishop Hall asked.

“I think we’re too passive. Other parts of the Caribbean have been agitating and protesting. We’re too passive. I think I go just five to six people to go with me to Bay Street some years ago when we were protesting over this.

“Bahamians tend to be too passive and laid back. Some of them cover up their laziness by saying God will protect me, but human beings need to do the work. God works through human instruments.”

Arguing that foreign investors should be made to set a portion of their resources aside in escrow, so as to compensate Bahamians when their ventures collapse and they flee the jurisdiction, Bishop Hall said of the present CLICO situation: “I don’t know how to feel about this but pray that Trinidad comes through with something and the Government can redeem itself.

“What about Angie down the road, Uncle Lou in Andros not getting anything? Let’s pray something happens. If it takes four to five more years we may not be there. It’s capitalism. Rugged capitalism can sometimes be un-Christian but that’s what we live with. Policyholders should have some recourse by which they recoup their savings.”