THE Government has given Colonial Life Insurance Company Ltd (CLICO) $1.9 billion thus far, as part of the $5 billion state bail out which had been promised to the cash strapped insurance company at the beginning of the year.

CLICO chairman, Dr Euric Bobb, told reporters on the first day of the 6th Annual Meeting of the Caribbean Group of Securities Regulators which began at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Port of Spain yesterday: ’The money is to be paid over time, over a very short time. So far we have had $1.9 billion from the Government, through the Central Bank, all the money comes through the Central Bank.

’We expect that we will be getting the remainder of the money in securities of different maturities over the next few weeks.’

He explained that the money would be issued to the company via bonds and bills of different maturities, so the company could also earn some income from them.

However he said this profit would strongly depend on how well the company manages its present affairs.

In January, the Government moved to take control of CLICO and other companies under the CL Financial umbrella because the company could not repay hundreds of millions of dollars owed to creditors and depositors.

Bobb said the new state appointed board now meets every month, and described this as a ’fairly standard approach to Governing the company.’

He highlighted the fact that most of the members of the new board are non executive members from outside the company.

’Most of the members of the board are non executive, which is very important. The board we replaced were all executives, but you need to have outsiders involved to keep management on a short leash,’ he explained.

About the statutory fund deficit which left CLICO in a precarious financial position and became public knowledge in January this year, he said, ’I’m not worrying about the statutory fund...There is a balance sheet, if you have enough assets in your balance sheet you can ultimately move assets into your statutory fund.’

He said they are working on getting the statutory fund (which was billions of dollars in the red) in equilibrium at present. However he said the most pressing order of business was getting the company’s entire balance sheet in order.

’Once you do that it is easier to get your statutory fund in line with the regulatory requirement,’ he added.