‘OECS gets Bajan estates in CLICO debacle’

A government minister has severely criticised the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) administration’s handling of the CLICO Insurance Company collapse, saying it gave away several plantations in Barbados to settle claims against the company.

The revelation came from Minister in the Ministry of Finance Ryan Straughn as he led debate Tuesday in the House of Assembly on the Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2025. He said the former administration committed the Barbados government to a $600 million settlement for a private company that offered only $60 million in assets, and pledged to the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) some plantations owned by CLICO in St John and St Philip as partial restitution.

“In the last gasp attempt to try to bail out a few people, they committed this country to $600 million of taxpayers’ money to bail out an insurance company, with only $60 million in assets being placed at the disposal of Barbadians to use. . . . I find it extraordinary, sir, because who would not take $600 million in exchange for $60 million?”

Straughn went on to outline the Mia Mottley administration’s efforts to fix the “financial mess” that “government had no business in”, and accused the former administration of “dithering for years” without crafting a clear, viable solution to the financial debacle that started at CL Financial and spread across subsidiaries and branches in the region.

He said the current government restructured the $600 million commitment down to $414 million. This included $163 million in Series B bonds, $149.74 million in Series A and another $93.2 million in bonds related to the British American Insurance settlement.

He further disclosed that the government had settled liabilities to a total of $154 million to provide relief to Barbadian policyholders.

However, the DLP administration had pledged several plantations, including Pool, Henley, Wakefield and Todd Plantations in St John, as well as River in St Philip, to the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States to settle policyholders’ claims in those islands, Straughn said.

“We had to end up issuing $18.5 million in bonds in exchange for the OECS giving up [the plantations]. Imagine that—the OECS effectively owned land in Barbados because the last government, the last Democratic Labour Party government [gave away the land] in exchange for the policyholders’ claims in the OECS. That’s what the last government did.

“But we solved it. And today, bit by bit, all of those lands that were not in production, all of those lands where nothing was happening, some of it is in housing. . . most of it is in agriculture,” Straughn told the Chamber.

He added, “So when they’re talking about debt, sir, I want them to also remember that it is their decisions that are costing taxpayers of this country money today. But the Barbados Labour Party is honouring those commitments. We cleaned them up. So, this matter of insurance and how it’s regulated is important.” (IMC1)