COMMANDER-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, President Bharrat Jagdeo, said he has instructed Police Commissioner Henry Greene to “leave no stone unturned”  and “get to the bottom” of the execution attempt on the life of  Mrs. Maria van Beek, the Judicial Manager of the financially troubled insurance company, CLICO (Guyana) .

Speaking with reporters yesterday morning outside the Hyatt Regency hotel in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, where the fifth Summit of the Americas is underway, President Jagdeo said the shooting of van Beek  – who is also the Commissioner of Insurance in Guyana – was “reprehensible”  and the Police are looking into the matter.

He noted, too, that Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, during a post-cabinet briefing last Friday, expressed the administration’s concerns about the shooting incident.

The President noted that he spoke to the Police Commissioner Henry Greene at the airport before he left on Thursday for the Summit, the same morning of the shooting.

“I met with the Commissioner of Police and I told him to leave no stone unturned and get to the bottom of this,” Mr. Jagdeo told reporters.

“We think it (the shooting) is reprehensible and the Police are looking into the matter,” the Guyanese head-of-State said.

Crime Chief, Seelall Persaud, said “a suspect” has been held by police in connection with the shooting of van Beek. Seelall said the person was picked up on Thursday afternoon, a mere few hours after the shooting incident, and is currently assisting with investigations.

Meanwhile, as police proceed with their investigation into the shooting, security in and around the city hospital where Mrs. van Beek is recovering and at her home has been beefed up.

Dr Luncheon had assured reporters at his post-Cabinet briefing that steps are being taken to ensure the safety of the Commissioner of Insurance and her family.

He pointed out that van Beek’s family had made representation for the enhancement of security and rightfully so.

“They say that hindsight is often much better than foresight and many of us who heard that news at 8 o’clock/ 8:30 in the morning…it was a great surprise because it was totally unexpected, but the administration, I’m told, has acted aggressively and in a very timely way. And both at home and the office and at the local hospital where medical attention is being provided, security personnel to Mrs. van Beek and at the staff at CLICO…has been beefed up,” the Cabinet Secretary stated.

Questioned on the possible effect Mrs. van Beek’s shooting will have on the legal proceedings as it relates to CLICO, Dr Luncheon stated that the best person to answer that would be Mrs. van Beek herself as he is not positioned to pronounce on that.

“In terms of the very personal content of this whole story, it’s difficult for me to be authoritative. I would want to believe all things being equal that it shouldn’t…but who best to answer,” Dr Luncheon asserted.

“I think the nation itself is truly traumatised by the event of this enormity”, he said, further conveying the Administration’s and Cabinet’s abhorrence to the act and their wishes to Mrs. van Beek for a speedy recovery.

“It is difficult to pronounce on our satisfaction or even to make a comment on what the police investigation has led to, because these are operational issues, and we are probably as much in the dark as the average Guyanese until such time that the police were to provide us with an update…,” he stated.

When contacted on Friday, sister of the Commissioner of Insurance, Dr Dionne Fries, said van Beek is stable and the shrapnel, as well as the bullet, have been removed from her body.

Ms. Fries stated that the family is grateful that Mrs. van Beek is alive and it is now just a matter of her recovering.

She noted that the family still cannot imagine why such a thing would happen and they are still troubled by the fact that she could be in danger. She added that the family is grateful for the security being provided by the Guyana Police Force, confirming that steps have been taken to ensure that the immediate family is secure.

Ms. Fries also said that at present they are focused on making sure that Mrs. van Beek is medically okay, but measures will be taken by the family as well to ensure that she is safe.

The government in a statement issued shortly after the shooting, in condemnation of the attack, said that it finds it incomprehensible that any sane person would stoop to such an act that would seem to have an intention of frustrating the work she is doing as the Commissioner of Insurance.

It stated, too, that in regard to the work van Beek is doing as Judicial Manager of CLICO, the Government stands firmly by its commitment to protect the interest of policyholders of the company.

Both the ruling party, the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C), and the two main opposition parties, the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) and the Alliance For Change (AFC), also came out in condemnation of the attack on the Commissioner of Insurance.

“We condemn without reservation this violent attack on an innocent citizen and hope that the perpetrators are brought to justice”, the AFC said.

The Private Sector Commission (PSC), in a statement, also denounced the attack on Mrs. van Beek, expressing profound shock and outrage at the “cowardly” attempt on the life of the Judicial Manager.

“Mrs. van Beek, the mother of three, who has recently been appointed the Judicial Manager of CLICO (Guyana) in the wake of the CLICO debacle, was charged with responsibility of determining the best course of action in helping to resolve the company’s difficulties to minimise the possible losses to the company’s policyholders,” the PSC statement said.

The entity is further calling on law enforcement agencies and all civic-minded citizens to use all means possible to bring to justice the perpetrators of this dastardly crime.

The Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG) has also registered its condemnation of the shooting, stating that no motive for the dastardly act can ever be understood, much less accepted in a still civilised and democratic society such as ours.

Mrs. van Beek had presented her report on the affairs of CLICO last week to Acting Chief Justice Ian Chang, which highlighted the assets and liabilities of the company as well as her activities and findings on the company.

The report, which is based on the investigations conducted by Nizam Ali & Company, lists the company’s liabilities as in excess of its assets by $11.9B.

However, President Jagdeo has advised that this figure should not be taken as an absolute, but rather it should be viewed as a range.

The above quoted amount, according to the report, is in a worst case scenario, while in a best case scenario the liabilities would exceed assets by $8.1B.

The President remains optimistic of his Administration’s ability to recover much more than what was quoted in the report, which it puts at some $401M of the $2.1B, representative of 53% of CLICO Guyana, and which was invested in the CLICO group.

Assuring that steps are being taken to recover the monies invested in the Bahamas branch as well as the holdings of the CL Financial Group here, the President had suggested paying the policyholders’ liabilities in cash and withholding payment to CLICO Trinidad, thereby reducing the gap further.

The company was placed under judicial management last February 25 after its financial woes were brought to light following the collapse of CLICO Bahamas shortly before that date.

The Bahamian liquidator, Craig Tony Gomez, had last month claimed that the investment made by CLICO Guyana in the company was an inter-company advance rather than a policy, reducing the likelihood of it being reimbursed.

However, President Jagdeo had declared that Government intends to challenge this. (From Mark Ramotar in Trinidad)