NAICOM dissolves Goldlink interim, re-constitutes another committee

National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) on Thursday said it has dissolved the Interim board of Goldlink Insurance Plc.

Gbolahan Olutayo

It was gathered that the Commission further reconstitutes another three-man Interim Board management to oversee the affairs of the Company.

It would be recalled that NAICOM, on October 31, 2012, took over the management of Goldlink and also constituted a seven-man interim board of directors to oversee the affairs of the company for six months after the commission observed irregularities in the company’s 2011 financial account.

The interim board has James Olatunde Ayo, former Managing Director of Royal Exchange Assurance Plc as Chairman and Gbolahan Olutayo as the Managing Director.

The interim board was charged with the responsibility of carrying out full investigation of the financial reports and corporate governance failures observed in the course of reviewing the company’s financial statement for the year ending December 31, 2011.

The outcome of the investigations revealed various abnormalities identified in the 2011 financial statement were attempts to conceal the company’s true financial position.

According to the report, several irregularities were perpetuated by the former executives and staff of the company, particular, there was a complete breakdown of corporate governance typified by the former non-executive chairman’s permanent present in the office.

The report noted that 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,” the report said.

It was also discovered that about 1.2 billion share unit have been disposed by some of the beneficiaries, and efforts are in progress on how to recover the disposed shares and associated dividends of about N125 million.

NEWSVERGE recalled that President of the Independent Shareholders Association, Chief Sunny Nwosu, called for the dissolution of the interim board which has served for over three years.

Nwosu, maintained that the Shareholders want to have its members on the board of the company, rather than having “strangers” deciding and directing the affairs of the company.