BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – FORMER Prime Minister Own Arthur has accused the David Thompson-lead government of not stating the facts relating to CLICO Holdings Barbados Limited.
According to the Barbados Nation, Arthur demanded that Thompson and CLICO Barbados Head Leroy Parris “come clean with the public of Barbados and give the facts instead of posturing”.
CL Financial, the parent company of CLICO Holdings Barbados Limited, had to seek a bailout from the Trinidad and Tobago government late last month after its liquidity problems were made public.
Arthur stated that pensions and insurance policies of persons could be in serious peril and called for CLICO to be made fully solvent to protect the country’s pension holders.
At a town hall meeting over the weekend, he stated the problems with CLICO had only just begun.
“How can it be a problem in Trinidad but it is all right here? All cannot be well in our local CLICO holdings if the parent company in Trinidad is ailing.
“Give us the facts. Publish the facts,” he demanded.
Meanwhile, in an effort to monitor and boost economic activity, Minister of Economic Affairs David Estwick revealed there would be the implementation of an early warning system to track economic performance in the tourism industry, international business and other vital income-generating sectors.
“With the economic crisis unfolding worldwide and the resulting troubles within our region, we have to be able to track the magnitude of its impact on the sectors we depend on. This would give the government an idea as to how the tourism product is being affected and it would allow us to put pre-emptive structures in place to mitigate the impact on our foreign reserve earnings,” Estwick said.
He also revealed that the government was keeping a close watch on the island’s international business and export sectors in order to assess the implications of the crisis on the fiscal deficit.
Barbados News