T&T owns up to BAICO liability – PM Gonsalves

Trinidad and Tobago has officially owned up to US$64 million in liability, owed due to the crash of the British American Insurance Company (BAICO) Limited.

“For the first time, since the new government has come to power in Trinidad and Tobago, it is the first time that they admitted that they have the liability for US$64 million,” Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves told a press conference at Cabinet Room last week.

Prime Minister of T&T Keith Rowley and PM Gonsalves both attended the 29th Inter-sessional meeting of CARICOM Heads of State and Government, which ran from February 26 – 27, in Haiti and PM Gonsalves told media practitioners last week that there were updates on the BAICO and Colonial Life Insurance Company (CLICO) issue.

“…and in the case of Trinidad and Tobago, with BAICO, Trinidad owes US$64 million and we are trying to get monies from different sources for BAICO…,” said PM Gonsalves.

He added that apart from accepting the liability, T&T has identified a source from which they would pay the money.

“That is to say, they had put CL Financial, the parent company (of BAICO), in liquidation in Trinidad and Tobago and the proceeds which they get from that liquidation, they are saying out of that, they could address this (payment of US$64 million), but the time that will be addressed is still not within our determination, or within our immediate grasp,” said Gonsalves.

The PM said despite the fact that no time-frame was given, it is a positive that T&T has made progress, by acknowledging the indebtedness and identifying the source where the money can come from.

“With this government, this is progress that we have made in that regard,” stated Gonsalves.

As it relates to CLICO, the PM said they are still working through the court system in Barbados and with the Barbados government.

BAICO and CLICO collapsed in January 2009 and sent a financial shockwave through the Caribbean.

In 2013, the Trinidad and Tobago government said it pumped more than TT$25 billion (one TT dollar =US0.16 cents) in bailing out the company since it collapsed in 2009, and in 2012, the Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard said the police started a “full criminal investigation” into the conduct of individuals and corporate entities involved in the collapse of CLICO and related companies, although former chair of the CL Financial group Lawrence Duprey blamed the world recession and not mismanagement for the collapse.

No one has been charged for any wrongdoing.