PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC):

Trinidad Finance Minister Karen Nunez Teshiera has brushed aside opposition calls for her resignation in the wake of the financial troubles facing the local conglomerate CL Financial.

Former opposition leader, Kamla Persad Bissessar, as well as the chief whip in the Senate, Wade Mark, said Teshiera should either submit her resignation or be fired from the Patrick Manning government over her handling of the entire affair.

The opposition legislators also contended that the finance minister, who acknowledged having inherited shares in the Colonial Life Insurance Company (CLICO) from her late husband, should not have been allowed to oversee the bailout plan for the embattled conglomerate.

The possibility

"Just consider the possibility of the British Chancellor of the Exchequer bailing out Lloyd's of London, only to be discovered that the Chancellor of the Exchequer has shares in Lloyd's of London. He would resign automatically, that is the culture of a civilised society, not a banana republic," Mark told a news conference Monday.

However, Teshiera told reporters that she had declared the inheritance to the Integrity Commission, adding that she was "at a loss" to understand how shares constituted a conflict of interest where the bailout of CLICO and three CL Financial subsidiaries was concerned.

Conflict of interest

She insisted that there was no conflict of interest in her handling of the matter, describing a conflict of interest as a situation which occurs when an individual or organisation "has an interest that might compromise their reliability".

Manning had earlier revealed that half of his Cabinet had some investment portfolio in CL Financial, while making it clear that he had no personal investments in the company.

Under a memorandum of understanding (MOU), signed between the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago (CBTT) and the CL Financial group on January 30, Teshiera said shares in the company could be included, along with the conglomerate's other assets, to fill the TT$10 billion (US$1.6 billion) deficit in CLICO's statutory fund.

The plan calls for the transfer of CLICO Investment Bank (CIB), along with the assets of the Caribbean Money Market Brokers, to the nationally-owned First Citizens Bank.

Government has also acquired the 55 per cent controlling shares in Republic Bank, the largest commercial bank operating here.

The bailout for the conglomerate has sent shockwaves across Caribbean and international markets where CL Financial boasts over US$100 billion of assets in at least 28 companies.