Head of the Privatisation Unit, Winston Brassington says he is prepared to be questioned by any parliamentary committee and would resign if the Opposition produces evidence to substantiate its assertions of corruption in the operations of the government holding company NICIL.
In a briefing with members of the media yesterday, Brassington, CEO of National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) lashed out at Alliance For Change (AFC) Member of Parliament Khemraj Ramjattan for his recent media attacks against him.
While he said he would not mind engaging the press with these matters, “don’t attack my integrity.”
“I have been doing my job and working in Government for over 17 years. My honesty is very important to me. Now you can argue issues, but don’t attack my honesty without putting something to back it up,” he said. “They make these headlines, but they have not put a single shred of evidence of anything we have done outside of our mandate. They are the criminals when they say these things and don’t back it up. I am going to wage a battle where if they want to put up, then back it up,” a livid Brassington said. “I am not going to have the integrity of myself, my people or this office impugned when we have done what we have been doing in accordance with the laws,” he said. “I don’t mind being in the papers every day, but don’t attack my integrity,” he said.
Further, he said that while he would have preferred a forum where he has an opportunity to ask questions of Ramjattan, he said he wouldn’t mind going before a committee of Parliament, whether it be the Economic Services Committee or another. However, he recognised that in such a forum he would be constrained in that he would not be able to ask questions of the committee or any of its members.
“I have no problem going before any parliamentary committee but I will need to be guided as to what is the role of some of these committees. I have in the past gone to committees. There is no substance to any of his arguments. If [Ramjattan] does not want a face to face [engagement] let him put the questions to us and we will answer. I hear all these things in the press and I ask myself am I going there to a contrived situation? Are we going to deal with real issues?” he asked.
$20 billion
Brassington said that since 1994, the NICIL/Privatisation Unit paid over $20 billion in dividends and privatisation proceeds from land and property sales.
He said that between 2002 and 2007 over $9 billion was paid over as dividends and over $12 billion paid in privatisation proceeds.
He said that the privatisation framework is defined in a white paper which sets out very clearly a three-tiered process “under which privatisation by this government is conducted.”
“So we have a Privatisation Unit which is a technical unit, which reports to the Privatisation Board, which reports to Cabinet, and of course the President is the head of the Cabinet,” he said, adding that people single out the President because “everything that we do we have a Cabinet decision.”
“This has been the institutional framework which has been adopted in 1993 when the PPP/C came to Government in 1992. It was set out in a policy paper called the Privatisation Framework Policy Paper. This framework was tabled in Parliament in 1993 as the policy of the Government with respect to privatisation and it clearly sets out a three-level process that was different from before. You have on the Privatisation Board members of civil society, labour, consumers, and the private sector and they participate in the decisions of privatisation,” Brassington said.
He pointed out that it is the Privatisation Board’s decision that goes to Cabinet, not the Privatisation Unit. “We may make our recommendations to the Board, but it is the Board’s recommendation that goes to Cabinet,” he said.
Brassington explained that while NICIL is a government company, “it is a private company registered under the Companies Act. The directors are appointed by government and we have paid over substantial sums to the government.”
He said that for any company under the Companies Act, only a portion of profits is paid as dividend and the decision to pay dividends rests with the directors of the company.
“In fact it is a general principle that if the directors of a company recommend a dividend to the shareholders, the shareholders have to approve it. They cannot increase the size of the dividend,” he said in response to those suggesting that NICIL should pay more to the Treasury.
Commenting on whether the Companies Act is in conflict with the supreme law of the land – the Constitution – on public monies being turned over to the Consolidated Fund, Brassington said that he believes that there was an article in the Constitution which said “unless if governed by another Act.”
That article, 216 says “All revenues or other monies raised or received by Guyana (not being revenues or other monies that are payable, by or under an Act of Parliament into some other fund established for any specific purpose or that may, by or under such an Act, be retained by the authority that received them for the purpose or defraying expenses of that authority) shall be paid into and form one Consolidated Fund.”
He said that if the government desires that NICIL pays more then it could speak to those directors with a view to achieving this end. “It is the directors who are empowered under the rules of the company to determine the level of dividend,” he said.
He said that while the government appoints the directors, the directors do not have to comprise government people.
“NICIL is a holding company. We have a dozen companies owned, which generate billions of dollars in sales, pay billions of dollars in taxes. Is the [AFC] proposing outright shutdown and privatisation of everything?” he asked.
Brassington said that NICIL is authorised to hold monies garnered through disposal of state assets under the authority of the Companies Act. Referring to the July 1990 incorporation agreement for NICIL, under the Companies Act, Brassington said that part of the company’s objective is to invest the monies of the company not immediately required.
He said that the money may be invested in one of the subsidiaries. “Guyoil is building service stations…that’s investment. That gets reflected in the consolidated accounts as investments. That’s financed out of the internal generation of Guyoil,” Brassington said.
