Auditor recommends NICIL recover $138M from BBCI, GPL

Jul 20, 2016 News

NICIL’s Chairman, Maurice Odle

Forensic Auditor, Anand Goolsarran has recommended that the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) make moves to recover millions from the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) and the Berbice Bridge Company Inc (BBCI).
Goolsarran conducted a forensic audit into the affairs of NICIL. His findings were vast and alarming. He recommended prosecution for key players in the schemes he highlighted. The auditor recommended that the entire former board of NICIL and the entire former Cabinet be charged and put before the courts.
Among the issues highlighted by Goolsarran was the fact that NICIL spent money on the Berbice River Bride and on GPL, and that these charges are on NICIL’s accounts.
He said, “The amounts of $84.732 million and $53.131 million expended on behalf of the Berbice River Bridge and the Guyana Power and Light respectively are also not a proper charge to the accounts of NICIL and should have been recovered from these two agencies.”
When the charges were incurred, Winston Brassington was Director of NICIL; he was also the Chairman of GPL and company secretary of BBCI.
In his audit report, Goolsarran noted, “By letter dated 4 July 2006, the HPS approved of NICIL meeting all additional cost in excess of the $20 million provided by the Ministry of Finance towards compensation of the identified occupants of D’Edward Village. Prior to 2006, NICIL incurred expenditure totaling $52.089 million, and for the period 2006-2014, a further $32.643 million was expended. This gives a total expenditure as at 31 December 2014 of $84.732 million which was improperly charged to the administrative expenses of NICIL.”
Goolsarran said that NICIL commented that the expenditure was incurred in relation to public-private partnerships and that it was treated as expenses of NICIL based on advice given.
Goolsarran also found it apt to note, “It is not clear what role NICIL played in relation to the construction of the Berbice River Bridge and in deciding on the mix of financing for the project. The Executive Director of NICIL was also the Company Secretary of BBCI from its inception, but it is not clear at what point he relinquished the position.”
Kaieteur News has been tirelessly trying to get on to NICIL’s new Chairman, Maurice Odle for information on a range of issues, this one included. The newspaper wanted to find out what moves, if any, were being made to recover the sums. However, for the past two weeks, Odle has remained unreachable.