SOME LOCAL INSURANCE COMPANIES are chaffing at what has been described as discrimination by the Government in favour of the Insurance Corporation of Barbados Ltd (ICBL).
According to one insurance executive, several attempts by his company to bid for the contracts to insure a number of Government buildings and statutory corporations have met with little success.
He said in some cases, his company's bids were revealed to ICBL to offer it the opportunity to underbid them; while in other cases a directive came down from the Ministry of Finance reminding the organisations that they had to be covered with the former Government-owned insurer.
One insurance broker said it, too, had submitted bids before Government agencies, yet despite coming in with lower bids than ICBL they had not won the contract.
Another broker suggested there seemed to be an unwritten understanding that Government would not dump ICBL and agencies were willing to give the insurer the opportunity to counter-offer once a bid was made.
Late last year Government sold its majority interest in ICBL to BF&M of Bermuda.
President of the General Insurance Association of Barbados, Paul Inniss told the BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY he could not comment on the cases highlighted since he had heard no complaints from the industry.
He added that given the substantial amount of Government business ICBL had on its books, a wholesale Government shift might destabilise the company. He anticipated that Government would, however, allow more local insurance firms to compete for their business in the future.
A senior Government official denied there was any law or regulation requiring Government buildings to be insured with the ICBL. He told BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY that a Government minister could decide which insurance company a statutory agency or building would be insured with – as was the case with the Transport Board, which has been insured through CGM Insurance Brokers Ltd, Evan Mandeville Associates Ltd, and Consumers' Guarantee Insurance Co. Ltd over the years.