Nineteen more employees of the financially troubled CLICO (Guyana) yesterday had their services terminated.

Stabroek News understands these employees were from the Accounting and Customer Service departments.  This leaves just about 26 junior staff workers working at the insurance company’s head office in Camp Street, this newspaper was informed. Stabroek News, however, was unable to ascertain who had signed the letters of termination.

According to reports, the dismissals of these employees did not come as a major surprise since there had been rumours circulating since last week that more employees were about to lose their jobs.

On March 18, more than 30 employees were given letters of termination by Assistant Manager and former Chief Executive Officer Geeta Singh-Knight.  On that same day, branches on Lamaha and Irving streets, which formerly housed agents, were shut down and these agents were relocated to Camp Street.

CLICO (Guyana) invested $6.9 billion (US$34 million) in CLICO (Bahamas) which represented 53 per cent of the local company’s assets. Although these investments were liquid on paper, investigations have revealed that this sum has been tied up in real estate investments that CLICO (Bahamas) had in Florida through subsidiaries. When CLICO (Bahamas) was ordered liquidated on February 24, the local company was subsequently placed under judicial management.

The Bahamian company was then ordered wound up on April 7, by Justice Cheryl Albury, a move which makes the prospect of CLICO (Guyana) recovering its $6.9 billion (US$ 34 million) dim. Justice Albury’s ruling means that all of the company’s assets will be sold to pay off its creditors, and the remaining assets, if any are available, will be distributed to the principals of the company. However, Guyana has hired attorney John Wilson, of McKinney Bancroft & Hughes, to represent the country’s interests in this matter.

President Bharrat Jagdeo, meanwhile, disclosed recently that he had successfully lobbied other Caricom Heads of Government to allow for $3 billion (US$15 million) to come from the regional Petroleum Fund to Guyana to assist in meeting the liabilities of the financially troubled CLICO.