BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – PROGRESS made by the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) Ministerial Sub-committee on Insurance in protecting policyholders of the failed British American Insurance Company (BAICO) has received praise by Branch Manager Eugene Hamilton.
“I applaud Dr. [Ralph] Gonsalves [Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines] and his team, which included Minister [Hon. Dr. Timothy] Harris, for thinking beyond the narrow political agenda of their island states and to look at the wider picture, and to see the impact that the demise of BAICO would have on the entire financial system in the region,” he said.
Hamilton, who was recently appointed to the BAICO regional Board of Directors, resigned from that position in June, as he thought it fit to “stand aside and allow the regulators with jurisdiction over BAICO to intervene in the public good”.
Following a meeting with Prime Minister Gonsalves, Hamilton said he was confident that the proposed solution, though it would take time to come into full effect, should “certainly assist policyholders”.
In a recent interview with SKNVibes, Hamilton said, “PM Gonsalves had outlined to us the proposal he had in mind for the restoration of British American for the benefit of the policyholders, and his plan appeared to be a very sound one which was plausible.
“So, we had communicated to him to inform him that we had discovered that the magnitude of the problem was beyond us as individuals or as a Board to deal with, and that we wanted the governments to intervene to make decisions very quickly,” Hamilton said.
As a named candidate to contest the upcoming General Elections for St. Kitts opposition party the People’s Action Movement (PAM), Hamilton fell under scrutiny when BAICO experienced critical liquidity challenges. He was accused of mismanagement of company funds and of refusing to give an account of depositors’ investments.
Hamilton said these statements have come largely from his political opponent in Constituency #8, Hon. Cedric Liburd, and Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas, as he opined that their motives were to attack him as a political candidate.
“It is really a tragedy on what is happening on the political front. As politicians, we need to be responsible with what we say. The intention was to do harm to me, but let’s think of the bigger picture. There are over 6000 policyholders who have been hurt and the potential harm to these people by this kind of conduct is far greater than what they could do to me,” he asserted.
At the same time, Hamilton noted that statements made Dr. Harris have been “responsible”, explaining that he has not heard any statement made on the political platform which would reverse the work the Ministry of Finance has been doing.
“The Minister of Finance, in my view, made statements mainly in Parliament. He could have joined his colleagues, but if he did so then he would have been defeating the purpose that he has been pushing on the regional front,” Hamilton concluded.
