ST.GEORGE, Grenada, July 20th, 2012 -- Prime Minister Tillman Thomas has described as “unfortunate” a decision by two government backbenchers to vote with members of Her Majesty’s Opposition to block an amendment to the Insurance Amendment Bill which seeks to protect the Grenadian population against fraudulent activity in the financial services sector.
“It is unfortunate, when you consider our recent history in which our people suffered severe losses from NALGICO, CapBank, CLICO, SGL and British American, all because of the absence of regulation. Now here we are trying to regulate the industry to protect the small person, you have Parliamentarians coming out against regulation,” Prime Minister Thomas said Friday following the adjournment of Parliament.
He questioned the motive behind the decision to vote against the mechanism designed to protect Grenadians from the painful financial experiences of the recent past suggesting that the imposition of an EC $100 fee to protect an investment of EC $25,000 is “well worth it.”
The Prime Minister said developments in the regional and global economy dictates that greater efforts should be made to regulate the financial sector or continue to face the economic difficulties caused by greed and lack of regulation.
“All over, everybody is talking about regulation to protect people and here you have the opposition and two backbenchers voting against regulation,…they have refused to protect the people of Grenada and there is no excuse for that,” the Prime Minister said.
He added that financial crimes were among some of the “major issues” facing the region and the world at this time.
The losses suffered by Grenadians following the collapse of the various companies offering financial services, have severely undermined the island’s finances and weakened the government’s ability to invest in productive sectors of the economy.
The Insurance Amendment Bill is designed to empower the Grenada Authority for the Regulation of Financial Institutions (GARFIN) to provide greater oversight of the financial services sector and ensure that the resources of “every Grenadian” is protected.
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