Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Nov 27, 2015 News
Though a forensic audit report on the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) emphatically recommends for the entity to be shut down, Finance Minister Winston Jordan does not necessarily share this view.
In fact, he insisted in a recent interview with Kaieteur News that NICIL as a state-owned company is essential.
He made this comment in response to questions posed on the NICIL report and whether it has been handed over to Cabinet for consideration.
“I have not read the NICIL report as yet. It is still on my desk. It will be handed over to Cabinet soon but at this moment I cannot say anything on the recommendations,” Jordan asserted.
Asked if he agrees with the recommendation for NICIL to be shut down, the Minister responded, “I can’t say anything on that because I have not read the report. I have not seen the recommendation you speak of.”
Jordan was then informed that a copy of the report which had been seen by Kaieteur News had stated such, among other recommendations.
To this, Jordan replied, “Listen, NICIL is necessary. You cannot shut down the entity just like that or do away with it, because it was established to serve a particular purpose. Granted, NICIL needs to be restructured, but I would emphasise again that it is a necessary entity. The decision to be taken on NICIL has to be approved by Cabinet in any case, so I cannot say to you that I agree with this recommendation or I disagree.”
The report on the forensic audit into NICIL was completed over a month now. Government had contracted Chartered Accountant Anand Goolsarran to conduct the audit. In the report, it has been recommended that the entity be closed down and a small department be opened under the Ministry of Finance, if government deems it necessary.
It was explained that the reason for such a recommendation was premised on the fact that NICIL was initially established for the purpose of privatization of state assets. That was done in two phases in the 1990s.
Since that phase ended years ago, the report recommends that there is no need for NICIL to remain a company. It says that it should be liquidated and government should make moves to establish a department to manage the assets being held by the company.
Since the launch of a forensic audit into the operations of NICIL, several glaring breaches of the country’s financial regulations have been unearthed.
The audit, Kaieteur News understands, categorically states that there was misuse of public monies by several office holders. It said, too, that they played an important role in one way or the other in providing the conditions necessary for some of the “unimaginable scales of corruption” to take place on the NICIL platform.
Junior Finance Minister Jaipaul Sharma had confirmed that the report on the forensic audit speaks to three sections of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act (FM&AA) 2003.
He had said that the audit justifies holding specific officials liable for misuse of public monies. Section 48 of the FM&AA says, “A Minister or official shall not in any manner misuse, misapply, or improperly dispose of public monies.”
Section 85, he said, also outlines what can be deemed as the liability of an official. That section of the Act says that an official who falsifies any account, statement, receipt or other record issued or kept for the purposes of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act, the Regulations, the Finance Circulars or any other instrument made under the Act; conspires or colludes with any other person to defraud the State or make opportunity for any person to defraud the State; or knowingly permits any other person to contravene any provision of this Act, is guilty of an indictable offence and liable on conviction to a fine of $2 million and to imprisonment for three years.
The report also speaks to the liability for loss of public monies at NICIL as it refers to Section 49 of the Act, which says that if a loss of public monies should occur and, at the time of that loss, a Minister or official has caused or contributed to that loss through misconduct or through deliberate or serious disregard of reasonable standards of care, that Minister or official shall be personally liable to the Government for the amount of the loss.
Minister Sharma had confirmed that there were various cases of public loss of monies at NICIL by certain officials, and that government has a responsibility to respect and follow through on the recommendations of strict penalties against those implicated.
Sharma had said, “NICIL was being run in a haphazard way and made dangerous decisions that cost the company millions of dollars in losses. It placed the then government in a bad place. NICIL really was operating as the PPP’s greatest force in making corrupt acts realized.”
His position is one that was vehemently advocated by the APNU+AFC coalition when it was in opposition, especially in the lead-up to the May 2015 general and regional elections. Politicians on both sides unanimously agreed for NICIL to be restructured, and in various instances underscored the need for it to be closed down.
With a new Board and Chairman in place, the government called on Executive Director Winston Brassington to explain NICIL’s investments into all projects over the years. He was also expected to state, honestly, the position of the company’s assets.
NICIL’s new Chairman Dr. Maurice Odle had said that there has been one meeting thus far, at which Brassington was told to prepare a “position paper” to say what policies and strategies were employed to justify investments made by the company into certain projects.
He explained that the document is expected to give good reasons for investments into the Marriott Hotel, the Berbice River Bridge Company and Pradoville Two scheme.
The paper has since been submitted and the board is currently perusing it to make a decision on the way forward with the company and Brassington.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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