Rowley: Govt cannot make Clico payments

“We expect to be talking to Barbados, Grenada and St Vincent about the liabilities of BAICO (British American Insurance Company), which was the entity through which Clico operated,” he said. At the just-concluded Caricom Heads of Government meeting in Grenada, Rowley said that the countries involved have said that Trinidad and Tobago took steps through legislative processes to financially bail out its citizens who were affected by the CL Financial collapse.

They have said that TT has not sufficiently done the same for citizens in other Caricom countries who were CL Financial clients. The basis of the argument, Rowley said, was interpreted from the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas to mean that no Caricom country should favour its own citizens in a regional entity over citizens of other member states.

“These arguments are on the table. They were bolstered by some agreements that dated back to the Manning era which were further supported by the Persad-Bissessar era where certain commitments were made to pay certain monies.” Those agreements, he said, “were cemented by a payment of US$50 million in a promise of US$100 million. We are now being called upon to conclude those transactions.” He has asked for time to look at the requests “a little closer,” he said, not in the context of the promises that were made, because TT will not renege on its commitment to its Caricom colleagues, but to look at the current situation with CL Financial.

He said, “there are some serious developments taking place with respect to this Clico matter, and the last thing we can do now is to pay out money to anybody (regarding) Clico while we are engaged in a very serious matter with respect to the Government’s protection of the national interest, with respect to the monies we paid out to Clico.” Claiming that the population will be advised of developments that are likely to take place, some shareholders, he said, have taken action to expel the Government of Trinidad and Tobago from the board of CL Financial while taxpayers have not recovered their $20-odd billion that were paid out.

The matters, he said, are far from ending notwithstanding previous ministers telling the people of TT that they have settled the issue.

“In fact the future looks quite unsettled but along the way (Government) will take all reasonable and legal steps to protect the interest of the people of (TT),” he said.