Friday, September 23 2011

ANDRE MONTEIL was not treasurer of the People’s National Movement (PNM) when the former PNM Government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with CL Financial in January, 2009, to deal with financial troubles at Colonial Life Insurance Company (Clico) and other subsidiaries of CL Financial.

In a statement on Wednesday, PNM general secretary Ashton Ford said Monteil was replaced as party treasurer in 2008 by then Minister in the Ministry of Finance Mariano Browne.

“The PNM further states that Mr Monteil did not hold any executive position in the party at the time of the agreement between CL Financial and the government,” Ford said.

In June, former PNM chairman Conrad Enill said Monteil resigned as PNM treasurer in 2008 after he retired from public life and several state boards which he had been serving on.

On September 12, 2007, Newsday reported that Monteil quit his top posts at CL Financial and would be on leave until March 2008 when his resignation took effect.

Monteil is one of the parties of the Clico Commission of Inquiry, where it was disclosed earlier this week that Lawrence Duprey, the former executive chairman of CL Financial wanted Monteil to negotiate a bailout agreement with the State because of his “political connections”.