propaganda press! freedom in Guyana

Guyflag
The recent Guyflag fiasco that has been making the rounds in the local media is worthy of comment.

To sum the case so far up: the landmark Sacred Heart Cathedral went up in flames last year; apparently the Guyana Fire, Life and General Insurance Company (Guyflag) submitted a claim to a re-insurer (basically an insurance company’s insurance company) based in Barbados on behalf of the Catholic Church in Guyana, owner of the Scared Heart building; when a claims adjuster visited he was introduced to Dr. Fred Sukdeo Chairman of the National Cooperative Credit Union Limited (NCCUL), whom he was led to believe was a representative of the Church; it turns out that Guyflag’s CEO, Joshua Safeek, is the Treasurer of the NCCUL; developing suspicions, the claims adjustor reported the incident which was subsequently reported to the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OIC); as reported in today’s paper, the OIC has ordered Guyflag to cease operations.

A cursory glance at the articles involving Guyflag and its principals reveal a company that enjoyed the sort of free publicity – almost as a matter of due course – that other insurance companies have to dedicate entire annual budgetary allocations to. Much of that publicity was based on that company’s generous support of cricket. But of course the company’s generosity, its largesse spread far beyond the confines of the cricket pitch.

In one article glowing “Cement galore” published in this paper in October of last year, we have Prime Minister Sam Hinds applauding Mr. Shafeek’s “commitment” of US $5M to the importation of cement at a time when the country’s main supplier Trinidad Cement Limited were experiencing production hiccups. According to our report, Shafeek proclaimed “There is no longer a cement shortage in Guyana and there isn’t likely to be any in the near future.”

In another Guyana Chronicle article published in July of this year, we have Shafeek proclaiming – in his role as Chairman of the Association of Regional Chambers of Commerce (ARCC) – at the Berbice Trade Fair and Exposition that Guyflag was willing to contribute up to 25% of the cost of the planned bridge over the Berbice River.

Whatever Guyflag was intended to be when it was started by former founders Bish Panday and Manniram Prashad (who both have nothing to do with the company’s operations), what it is today seems to be the epitome of the sort of corporate greediness and viciousness that most of us have thought only possible on Wall Street.

From Government officials, to international donors, to ordinary policy holders, to a timid press, what Guyflag seems to have done was to dupe an entire nation; what we appear to have here is our own little Enron.

Without prejudicing current investigations into the company’s operations we can be sure that Guyflag and its sister NCCUL have been built upon some of the existing regulatory gaps and loopholes that exist within the local insurance operating environment.

It is high time that the government starts looking at turning these loopholes into nooses for companies like Guyflag.

nope this is not a propaganda press original, this was written by no other than the GUYANA CHRONICLE! that’s right - THE GUYANA CHRONICLE, Oct 6 2005. so this goes to show that even the mad ones sometimes come up for air and some to their senses.

Joshua Shafeez has long list of banditry and illicit behaviours in his history. the latest being the polar beer scam and all related activities. and let’t not forget that another PPP big.schwig and member of parliament Bibi Shaddick works for and with Shafeek. all pious so.called muslims we’re told