The Guyana Police Force has received the audit report on the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) from government and has begun investigations to determine if any criminality was involved in the management of the controversial state holding company.
Police Commissioner Seelall Persaud confirmed that the GPF had received the report, when asked by Stabroek News at a press conference yesterday, and said that investigations had begun.
An audit of NICIL, conducted by former Auditor General Anand Goolsarran, among other things, recommended criminal and/or disciplinary action against all those responsible for the interception of state revenues totalling $26.858 billion in violation of the constitution. Goolsarran had said that several laws were broken.
Asked if the force was capable of successfully undertaking such investigations, Persaud responded, “I am very confident that we are able to investigate …whether we have the competence? Of course we do.”
He further explained that when it comes to basic white-collar crime investigations, “Any general investigator can do that but if it is one that is complicated, then we send them to the specialist unit. And then we have SOCU that is very, very highly trained right up to almost any country in the region so while they do not have full-time disposal to financial analysts, a lawyer and so… as a unit they have access to that and they use it whenever needs be…”
Minister of State Joseph Harmon had last week said that Chief Executive Officer of NICIL Winston Brassington and his deputy Marcia Nadir-Sharma have been sent on leave with immediate effect, to facilitate investigations by the Guyana Police Force and the Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU) stemming from the forensic audit.
“In Cabinet’s view there is sufficient information, provided in the report to the agencies, for them to explore further and basically dig deeper,” Harmon had said.
Harmon had also said that the report and accompanying notes of the auditor would be handed to the Commissioner of Police and SOCU who will take the process forward. He said Cabinet also requested that the report be sent to the Auditor General so that a more precise audit can be undertaken and instructed that Minister of Finance Winston Jordan cause a transaction audit of NICIL to be conducted.
Brassington is currently out of the country and when contacted by Stabroek News had expressed shock at government saying he was sent on leave. According to him, he had proceeded on vacation from his accumulated two-month vacation time. He said he was expected to return to work on January 23, 2016 and both Jordan and NICIL’s Board are aware of this.
The Commissioner of Police yesterday said that he too was aware that Brassignton was not currently in the country.
Last week Brassington held a defiant press conference in which he rejected many of the assertions contained in Goolsarran’s report.
“As far as I know, and in good faith, I have not broken any laws and if Mr Goolsarran is suggesting it, then I believe I have a clear defence on why what we did was properly done and we should not be held responsible and the only way this matter can be determined is if this matter goes to court and be heard and no one has ever challenged us,” he told reporters at a press conference at his office. He added that Goolsarran’s comments were not backed up by evidence and the audit report did not take into account NICIL’s comments and sought to dismiss the findings.
“A lot of what is being said by Mr Goolsarran are opinions of a legal nature which are not backed up by evidence. On the other hand, we have many years of practice where these things have been happening. We have legal opinions that state that we are within our jurisdiction to conduct these transactions, we have clean audit reports for many years which indicated that NICIL’s accounts were prepared in accordance with proper accounting standards, audited and we have clean opinions,” he declared.
“If someone is saying we did something wrong are they saying the entire government who made the decision? Cabinet? The board members? The counter agencies that are the other parties? Did they act illegally?” Brassington questioned.
He was critical of the report and said the final draft was only presented to him last week even as he provided a copy with NICIL’s attached comments. Brassington was also critical of the breakdown of Goolsarran’s report. He asserted that he expected more of a structured breakdown that was devoid of opinions and focused on facts.
Goolsarran has rejected Brassington’s comments and said the findings of the audit are backed by legal support and despite a hostile response from NICIL which placed a severe restriction on the audit, he tried his best to incorporate as many explanations as possible provided by the entity.
