Mia Mottley Cries Bloody Murder – $10M Taxpayers Monies Ought To Be Protected At Clico Disposal!

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OPPOSITION LEADER Mia Mottley asking what measures Government has put in place to protect the taxpayers' money which it has put at the disposal of Clico's Mortgage & Finance Corporation. Photo: Weekend Nation

WHERE IS the collateral?

Where is the oversight?

What have you put in place to protect the taxpayers’ money?

Those are the questions Opposition Leader Mia Mottley wants Prime Minister David Thompson to answer.

The questions came yesterday at a Press conference as Mottley addressed the issue of $10 million placed at the disposal of Clico Mortgage and Finance Company (CMFC), by the Central Bank, in light of the financial troubles facing its parent company, C L Financial in Trinidad and Tobago.  The money was part of a three-pronged course of action introduced by the Central Bank this week and also includes the opening of a special facility in event that the CMFC needed cash and interbank guarantees that covered lending by other banks to CMFC, if it became necessary.  Speaking at the Oppositions Leader’s Office in Parliament Buildings, Mottley stated that while the Opposition understood why there would be a need to assist a financial institution whose parent company was in financial trouble, “we don’t understand it if it is done without protecting the risk”.

She stated: “It is the duty of the regulator whether the Central Bank, or the supervisor of insurance or the Ministry of Finance to put in place measures to protect the policyholders, the depositors, the investors, the employees of institutions and the wider business community.”

Mottley added: “If that duty can be discharged without you having to spend a cent of the taxpayers’ money, that is the best case scenario. If however, as has happened in the past, there may have to be some exposure of the taxpayers’ money because Government has to intervene to stabilise a situation, then the legitimate and natural question must be what conditions and or concessions have you put in place to protect the taxpayers’ money which has been exposed?”

She queried if the Government had asked CLICO for a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to be signed, like the government of Trinidad and Tobago had done with its parent company, or if they asked for oversight whether parliamentary, or on the part of the Ministry of Finance or have a director to be put on the board of CLICO, or even some type of collateral. Mottley also charged that it was not true to say Clico Barbados Holdings would be exempt from any action which affected its parent company C L Financial.  Quoting from the MOU signed between the Trinidadian government and C L Financial, Mottley said there were at least four instances which gave the Trinidad government the right to go after any assets owned by C L Financial irrespective of where they were located.

“It is impossible to say that any subsidiaries in the C L Financial group are exempt from what is taking place there,” she said.

She further stated that C L Financial’s 2007 report made it absolutely clear that CLICO Barbados, CLICO Life Insurance Barbados, CLICO General Insurance Barbados and CLICO Mortgage and Finance Company Ltd, were all 100 per cent owned subsidiaries of C L Financial.

She also queried if Clico had been asked to put down its private jet because “you can’t be flying a private jet at $18 million on a capital lease, but then ask the taxpayers to assist you and prop you up”.

Source: nationnews.com

• Memorandum Of  Understanding Between CL Financial And The Government
• Barbados Central Bank ‘Made Right Move To Ease Fears’
• Trinidad Clico Bailout Gets Parliament Nod
• Trnidad & Tobago On Credit Watch ( Standard & Poor’s)
• Nation Newspaper To Be Owned By Trinidad & Tobago Government Due To Clico Bailout!

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Tags: David Thompson, global financial crisis, Mia Mottley, Trinidad and Tobago