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Chuks Udo Okonta
The Interim Management Board of Goldlink Insurance Plc, today unveiled the report of the forensic investigation instituted by the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) when it took over the management of the underwriting firm.
Its Chairman, James Ayo, unveiled the report at the firm’s annual general meeting in Lagos. He noted that the investigation confirmed the observation of NAICOM that various abnormalities identified in the 2011 financial statement were attempts to conceal the company’s true financial position.
He osited that several irregularities were perpetuated by the former executives and staff of the company, stressing that in particular, there was a complete breakdown of corporate governance typified by the former non-executive chairman’s permanent present in the office.
He said the interim management board instituted a share capital audit which revealed that about 2.5 billion shares were inappropriately issued to selected shareholders without considerations into the company.
“To support the creation of these bubble shares, the Head Office Building and other assets were revalued and inflated by about N1.5 billion. The revaluation surplus was used in part to create these shares against sound accounting standards and principles. Currently, the interim management board has recovered 1.2 billion shares through voluntary surrender and about 134 million shares by way of forfeiture,” he said.
He said it was also discovered that about 1.2 billion share unit have been disposed of by some of the beneficiaries, and that the interim management board has commenced the process of recovering the disposed shares and associated dividends of about N125 million.
The Chairman said the company’s gross written premium grew at a cumulative average growth rate of 5.14 per cent between 2011 and 2013 with resultant figures of N3.99 billion, N5.40 billion and N4.35 billion for the years 2011, 2012 and 2013 respectively.
He said the firm paid the sums of N1.69 billion, N1.49 billion and N1.24 billion as claims in 2012, 2013 and 2014 respectively.
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