THE EDITOR, Sir:
I READ with interest Mr. Lloyd A. Vermont's letter published in your issue of February 7, 2003. I thoroughly agree with him that a public enquiry should long have been made regarding the closure of this national institution.As four years have now elapsed since it was closed by the Government, it is rather late to take this course, but I do feel very strongly that if certain preventative measures had been taken, the Jamaica Mutual Life, once the leading life insurance company in the West Indies, would still be with us today.
Mr. Vermont expressed the opinion that the high interest rate policy of the Government was, at the very least, a contributory factor and wondered aloud if the management could also have contributed. How-ever, I think that the root cause, and possibly what could have averted such drastic action, was the neglect of the Office of the Superintendent of Insur-ance to institute a check as soon as matters appeared to be getting out of hand.
All insurance companies are required by law to make regular returns to the Superintendent of Insurance specifically to avoid problems of this nature or, simply put, to ascertain that a company's liabilities do not exceed its assets. Obviously this was not done by the powers that be.
It is a disgrace that the Jamaica Mutual Life was allowed to just disappear from the national landscape in this way. Having myself worked with this organisation for over 30 years, I was part of a delegation that went in 1998 to see the Minister of Finance, Dr. Omar Davies, when rumours were circulating about its possible closure. I was amazed to find that few at the Ministry, including Dr. Davies, were aware of the rich national heritage that this company had over its 150 years of existence.
Two of the main founders in 1844 were our own National Hero George William Gordon and the renowned Jamaican patriot Edward Jordan. The group responsible for the establishment of this remarkable "mutual" institution did so entirely without capital and they could never have imagined that one day it would just be discarded without any concern for its heritage.
I regret to say further, that the Ministry people did not seem to be aware of the extent to which this noble institution was a part of the national fabric in terms of benefits to countless Jamaicans in all walks of life in the form of mortgage loans, pensions, death benefits and the role it played in rescuing our various Governments "when things were bad with them". Being a mutual company (no shareholders), Jamaica Mutual Life at one time paid bonuses to their policy holders far in excess of most other life companies in the entire world.
In addition, with the demise of this great institution, benefits to former staff members in the form of pension have been virtually frozen. This is a disgrace, considering that most pensioners can hardly make ends meet today due to accumulated inflation and the mind-boggling loss of value of our currency under Dr. Davies' watch as Minister of Finance.
For some reason which we as pensioners are unable to ascertain, the Staff Pension Fund is being held in limbo. There has been absolutely no revision in existing pensions since the company ceased operations and despite enquires and meetings with FINSAC, we can hear nothing.
I was Secretary of the Jamaica Mutual Life Staff Superannuation Scheme prior to my retirement and this was separate and apart from the main Jamaica Mutual Life Fund, with Blue Chip investments specifically assigned to benefit from growth in equity value vis-a-vis inflation. Yet, despite enquires and meetings, FINSAC cannot say what is to become of this Fund. In the meanwhile, we as pensioners must suffer while they dispose of its assets at bargain basement prices.
In referring to the Jamaica Mutual Life, a former chairman of the board of directors, Simon Pietersz, said in 1887:
"There is no institution in the island based on a nobler foundation than the Jamaica Mutual Life Assurance Society. Established on the principle of mutuality, it had for its only capital to begin its operations, the confidence which the respectability, the standing and the integrity of its founders inspired; and these men, when they first met, little thought they were about to raise an institution destined to last for ages, and that generations yet unborn, would bless their memory."
I feel that Mr. Pietersz and many others who devoted their lives to building the Jamaica Mutual Life, must be turning in their graves, now that this great "people" institution has been allowed to die. Why, for example, could the Government not have bailed out and rehabilitated a failed Jamaica Mutual Life in the same way that they bailed out and rehabilitated a similarly failed National Commercial Bank?
I am, etc.,
DONALD LINDO
deal@anbell.net
Former vice-president and author of Time Tells our Story (The Official History of the Jamaica Mutual Life).
