All options available to the state in resolving the Clico issue are to be pursued, according to Attorney General Anand Ramlogan.
The AG made the point during a news conference yesterday at Cabildo Chambers. He was refuting an article in another newspaper on Monday. The report claimed the services of six teams of lawyers working on the Clico matter were terminated. The former government was forced to pump $5 billion into CL Financial subsidiary, Clico. Forensic accountant Robert Lindquist has been hired to probe the circumstances that caused the need for the bailout. "We are going to pursue this matter with Clico to the hilt and we shall pursue every avenue open to us. But I will do so in a responsible, professional and cost-effective manner," the AG stressed. "We cannot allow the candle to cost more than the funeral," he added.
Ramlogan said the article was "quite mischievous." He said it was "completely untrue. How can a newspaper print such mischievous allegations on the front page on a day that Spain won the (2010 Fifa) World Cup, is a matter with cause for concern." Ramlogan said he didn't consider it "responsible journalism" for the newspaper to publish such a "factually incorrect" story without contacting him for comment. He said he was never contacted for verification. He said the newspaper got it "all wrong." The AG said the work of the team of local attorneys had ended and there was no need to retain their services. Ramlogan said the services of the forensic accountant and the foreign attorneys remained critical to the resolution of the Clico probe.
He said as AG he was not going to allow lawyers, "local or foreign, to simply have a feeding frenzy at the trough at the expense of the very (Clico) policyholders who are on their death beds and in hospitals and cannot access their own monies to have life-saving operations."