CINICO reveals losses to Legislative Assembly

(CNS): CINICO continues to run at a loss. However, at least at least the people of the Cayman Islands know this is the case for the government owned insurance company since it is one of the first government entities to complete its 2007/08 annual report. Many others have still to file their reports for 2007/08 and some have yet to complete for previous financial years as well. Minister for Health and Human Services Anthony Eden laid the CINICO report on the table of the Legislative Assembly on Thursday morning, saying it had reduced its operating losses from $6.5 million to $200,000 due to a capital injection from government.

CINICO (the Cayman Islands National Insurance Company) is a wholly government-owned insurance company which was formed to provide health insurance coverage to civil servants (employees and pensioners) and other residents of the Cayman Islands who historically have had difficulty obtaining coverage through their employer or the private insurance market. As a result it is difficult for the company to collect premiums that match its outlay. However, the minister said that an industry indicator of how viable an insurance firm is relates to the operating expense to payment ratio, and he said CINICO exceeds the industry benchmark of 15% as its is only 11%.

The minister explained that, as a class A insurance firm, it has to be compliant with CIMA regulations, but was not because of the significant shortfall in premium collection — hence the need for a significant capital injection from the shareholder, which is government. “It is now fully compliant,” he added. “Despite the difficulties CINICO is committed to addressing the historical negative performance.”

Although this government company has revealed its continuing losses in its report, at least the peopleof the Cayman Islands can now read how much CINICO is costing them. Most other government entities have not yet provided their 2007/08 accounts to the LA.

Despite the fact that many government entities remain significantly delinquent in their account reporting, as first revealed in July of 2008 by Auditor General Dan Duguay’s report, State of Financial Accountability reporting, CNS can confirm that the Public Accounts Committee will not meet to question financial officers over this issue before the Legislative Assembly is dissolved on Tuesday.