THE anxiety of the affected clients of Clico has now come to an end and they could now breathe a sigh of relief with the ruling by the High Court which clears the way for the government to start discharging the company’s liabilities. Understandably, many affected clients were worried and there were several contributory factors to the situation. One of them of course was the fact that the political opposition attempted to use the issue to discredit the government by painting a picture that it was in collusion with Clico and was covering up the matter and continuously spurted misinformation and distortions. And this was despite the fact that the government made it pellucid that it will at any cost do what it takes to protect and safeguard the interests of the affected clients. Furthermore, the government explained that it had to await the court’s ruling before it could act. But typical behaviour of Guyana’s political opposition it continued to distort reality in its attempt to score cheap political points.
Another source of anxiety was the fact that court matters, especially of such nature, usually take a long time to conclude and in the final analysis no one could have predicted what the ruling would be. On this note President Bharrat Jagdeo on several occasions in the past had cause to criticise the court for its sloth in liquidating the local insurance company.  “I am very, very upset and I hope that people who have money in Clico will join the government in urging the judiciary to move on this matter,” President Jagdeo said during a news conference in March this year. “We have close to $4 billion sitting to give back people their money… at least a large number of people. I don’t want this to become another Globe Trust issue. Where one or two persons, crazy people can stymie so many people in getting their money…”, he lamented.
And then the Globe Trust collapse was a living experience which was a grim reminder to the Clico clients.
Nevertheless, the court has ruled that Clico is insolvent and Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh has welcomed the decision describing the attempts by persons connected to or with vested interests in, the company’s affairs as “a deplorable series of frivolous actions in the court, with no merit, and with no obvious aim or design but to cause delay and to frustrate the public interest in this matter”.
The Chief Justice in handing down his decision stressed: ““In other words, the court finds that the total assets of Clico do not exceed its total liabilities by any amount – let alone by 25% of the net amount of premiums received in respect of long-term insurance business for the proceeding financial year.
“This court wishes to point out that it does not lie in the mouth of Clico to contend, in these proceedings for winding up, that any part of its business does not qualify  as insurance business within the classes of insurance business specified  in the schedule  to the Insurance  Act 1998.
“It therefore does not lie within the mouth of Clico to claim that any part of its business falls outside of, and is not caught by section 46  of the Insurance Act, which mandates the establishment and maintenance of a statutory fund  in respect of each class of insurance business comprising of assets which do not fall, in terms of value, below its liabilities in respect of that class of insurance business.”
The Finance Minister emphasised that government’s intentions have always been to ensure an orderly resolution of the difficulties encountered by the company and to protect the public interest, and that Friday’s Court ruling paves the way for this to be achieved.

“Now that the approval of the court has been obtained, government intends to proceed immediately to liquidate the company and start discharging the company’s liabilities,” he declared.
So finally the affected clients should be able to breathe a sigh of relief especially in view of the fact that the government has reiterated its commitment of honouring its obligations with respect to the matter.
It would be interesting to see what those, who were spreading misinformation and leveling all sorts of spurious charges against the government, have to say now.