Al Edwards ,Financial Editor 
Peter Lawson, acting chairman, Dyoll Group.
AS MINORITY shareholders of the Dyoll group of companies express a need for more information on the present state of the insurance company and plans for its future, acting chairman for the group, Mr. Peter Lawson, spoke with the Financial Gleaner in an attempt to lend clarity to events.
He took the opportunity to declare that many of the media reports on the Dyoll saga have been riddled with inaccuracies particularly as it relates to the value of the claims, promises given by Christopher Astaphan that AIC would come to the rescue, and that the CFO, Debbie Anne Hyde, overstated the amount of reinsurance recovery.
OLD BOARD/NEW BOARD
Mr. Lawson believes that there is confusion among the public as to who was responsible for the decisions that were made and points to the fact that a new board was appointed in the middle of 2004 .
That board, he says, had nothing to do with the Cayman situation and in effect had to come up with a solution to satisfy all stakeholders in the aftermath of the devastation wreaked upon the Cayman Islands by Hurricane Ivan.
Mr. Lawson said: "There is a lack of clarity as far as the public is concerned as to who was responsible for setting the level of reinsurance. It is very important to note that the new board was appointed in the middle of 2004.
REINSURANCE TREATIES
"The reinsurance treaties were put in place to run from January 2004 to December 2004. As far as Cayman is concerned we had three property treaties. These were all agreed upon by the previous board which comprised of Mr. Christopher Bovell, Mr.Alvaro Casserly, Mr. Paul Bicknell, Mr. Patrick McDonald, Dr. Michael Witter, Mr. Gordon Sharp, Mr. Oliver Chen, Mrs. Catherine Parke Thwaites, Mr. Mark Thwaites and Mr. Stephen Thwaites.
"That board was chaired by Mr. Christopher Bovell with both Stephen Thwaites and Mark Thwaites serving as executives.
"The new board had its first meeting on the 21st of July 2004 and we got our first orientation/presentation on both the Group and the insurance company on August 26 which is some two weeks before Hurricane Ivan.
"The new board comprised of myself as acting chairman, Mr. Hayden Singh of Courts, Dr. Damian King of the University of the West Indies, Aubrey Garcia of Lex Caribbean, Dawn Azan of Mega Mart. Mr. Mark Thwaites, Mrs. Cathrine Parke-Thwaites and Stephen Thwaites were existing board members.
"We came into a situation where the board had already made decisions as to the business it would write in Cayman and the reinsurance treaties and programmes that would be put in place there. This was for the period 1st January 2004 and was to run for 12 months to December 31, 2004. Decisions on re-insurance was made by the previous board.
"So us coming in a few weeks before Ivan really meant we had absolutely no involvement with any business that was put in place for Cayman. and secondly we had no means of changing decisions that were already made.
"As with any other board we relied on information presented by senior executives and experts who understand the technical elements of insurance."
Reinsurers told Dyoll executives that the damage caused by Ivan in Cayman was as a result of a one in 500 year or one in 1,000 year event.
Many insurance companies had to subsequently undergo serious capital restructuring. Had Hurricane Ivan slammed Jamaica as it did the Cayman Islands, many local insurance companies would find it difficult to survive. Jamaica by the grace of God was spared."
Part II next week.
