Senior government officials and commentator Christopher Ram squared off last evening on a state television debate over NICIL and related matters but it is unclear if either side was convinced by any of the arguments thrown up
As Government sought to clear the air on issues related to the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) and the Privatisation Unit with a television discussion, panellists Christopher Ram and publisher of Kaieteur News Glenn Lall pressed officials for answers and officials hit back calling on them to be responsible for their utterances.
Discussions focused on the ongoing controversies of NICIL and its role in the financing of the Marriott-branded hotel to the tune of US$19 million, and the subject of how much money NICIL has at its disposal. Brassington, Dr, Singh and Dr. Luncheon dismissed the figure of $50 billion as being held by NICIL and called on both the Kaieteur News and the AFC to explain how they arrived at that figure.
The debate took place on NCN Channel 11, itself the subject of the news recently with the budget cuts. Recently, NCN has sought to broaden the composition of its panels and this was remarked upon by Ram. Michael Gordon moderated the discussion, broadcast live.
In addition to Ram and Lall, Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon, Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh and Head of the Privatisation Unit and NICIL, Winston Brassington participated. Fifteen minutes into the proceedings, Editor of Kaieteur News, Adam Harris joined the panel after his publisher summoned him for help with an answer. The camera had earlier zoomed in to show the two seats left empty by the absence of Khemraj Ramjattan and Moses Nagamootoo of the AFC. Tags bearing the names of these two AFC members of Parliament were on the seats in their absence.
Speaking on the programme, Dr. Singh said that NICIL has performed “an extremely important role over the years.” He said that it has foresight in its establishment and that it has an important role to play in the governance of government companies. He said that more recently it has played a role in catalysing investment.
Ram said that he was appalled at the tardiness of the Government for not making available to him the Management Agreement for NICIL, a document which was essential for an understanding of the issues. However, Dr. Luncheon gave the assurance that he would have been making the document available and that he needed some time to get it.
When it was Dr. Luncheon’s time to speak, he said that the recent news carried particularly in Kaieteur News on NICIL was libellous and scandalous and he posed this question to Ram and Lall: “What exactly is the beef with NICIL?”
Responding to the question, Lall said that his newspaper only carried what it heard from the politicians. “That came from the mouth of the politicians,” he said.
But Dr. Luncheon rejected the answer from Lall, saying that the paper could not escape responsibility for carrying the articles. At this point, Lall made it clear that it was the editor who should be answering and summoned Harris who then, on camera, walked on to the set, took up one of the seats left empty by Ramjattan and Nagamootoo and spoke.
Harris explained that the newspaper asked the AFC about the figure of $50 billion quoted in the article. He said that they had stated that they looked at the 2003 accounts of NICIL and then they computed the sale of assets and through that methodology they arrived at a figure in the neighbourhood of $50 billion. Brassington said that he never got a breakdown of how the party arrived at the figure. “If they can’t explain that and we don’t know where the number came from – it must be jumbie arithmetic!” Brassington charged.
It was at this point that Ram asked whether there is separate accounting for proceeds of privatisation as distinct from other monies. Ram asked, “Has there been a co-mingling of privatisation funds with NICIL funds?”
To this Brassington said that the Privatisation Unit is not a legal entity in that it owns anything and therefore, the proceeds from privatisation are turned over to NICIL – in the case of NICIL-owned property and to Guysuco in the case of Guysuco-owned property. He said that the PU acts in the same way as a real estate agent operates – in selling a property on someone else’s behalf. He said further that the proceeds of the sales are accounted for in the books of NICIL and these are audited by the Auditor General.
He said that between 1994 and 2011 over $12 billion was raked in as proceeds from privatisation and turned over to the Treasury.
Lall challenged the Government officials to explain why NICIL was preparing to put some US$19 million into the controversial Marriott hotel. He wanted to know if there was a feasibility study done and who did it. Dr. Singh in response said that experts have signed off on the project as being a bankable one and that details of all the studies have been documented and put in the public domain.
With regards to the project, Brassington said that Atlantic Hotels Inc is seeking a further US$8 million as equity investment and he said once the equity is in, the debt financing would come. Brassington said that because of the negative publicity, four investors have walked away saying that they were no longer interested.
At the wrap up of the discussion, Ram asked that there be an independent audit of the financial transactions of the PU/NICIL. He also expressed concern about what he called conflicts of interest, where the Finance Minister is chairman of a board that reports to him as Finance Minister – essentially reporting to himself. Ram also raised the concern about recently broken news regarding the possible leaking of insider information for the purchase of shares in a privatised company.
On the matter of conflicts of interest, Minister Singh said he disagreed with Ram and also said that an independent audit of PU/NICIL was out of the question as the Auditor General is mandated by law to audit these entities. Further, he said that there is additional oversight provided by committees of the Parliament.
