Government holding company NICIL will be proceeding with a trial to recover money which it says the Guyana National Industrial Company Inc (GNIC) owes for leased land.
The matter, which was previously in the course of settlement, has so far seen GNIC paying $108 million of the $148 million it owes the National Industrial and Commercial Investment Limited (NICIL).
At a hearing before Justice Rishi Persaud in the Commercial Court on February 8, attorneys on both sides said that the two companies were going to work out payment of GNIC’s outstanding balance of $860,870.
When the matter was called for report yesterday, however, attorneys Timothy Jonas and Neil Boston SC, for NICIL and GNIC, respectively, indicated that they will go to trial, since there were disputes over the balance owing.
Justice Persaud subsequently fixed April 5 for commencement of the trial at 9.30 am.
During the course of settlement, GNIC paid the first sum of $60 million to NICIL on February 1 and a second payment of $48 million a week later.
NICIL had made an application to have GNIC liquidated.
Court documents seen by Stabroek News show that on March 14, last year, NICIL applied to have GNIC, “Wound up by the court under the provisions of the companies Act of 1991,” since NICIL had decided that the company was unable to pay its debts.
The application also offered the court the option of granting any such other order which shall be just.
This judgment was arrived at after GNIC failed to pay the $148,860,870 award granted to NICIL in 2013. NICIL had approached the court to resolve the issues surrounding the land which it had leased to GNIC.
GNIC, a company owned by Laparkan and the National Engineering Company (NEC), had purchased the assets of the former Guyana National Engineering Corporation (GNEC) and had leased Lots 1-12, Lombard Street, as part of the privatisation of GNEC.
NICIL reduced the rent due from GNIC by 50% in 2000, and the sale price of equipment by 30% in 1995.
Despite these concessions, GNIC had failed to honour its obligations to pay under the lease, and the matter had been forwarded to arbitration in July 2009.
In 2013 arbitration proceedings for unpaid rent resulted in an award of $148,860,870 in favour of NICIL for the period 2006 to 2009.
According to a press statement from that period, the tribunal ruling was based on extensive reviews of exhibits tendered, pleadings, written submissions, and notes of cross-examination of NICIL’s then Executive Director Winston Brassington and GNIC’s Chief Executive Officer Clinton Williams.
The Government of Guyana, as NICIL’s shareholder, had pledged to implement the tribunal’s ruling with careful attention to the interest of the workers of GNIC, as it remained steadfast in its commitment to ensuring that the livelihood of the employees of GNIC was not affected by the acts of NICIL.
The consequences of not paying the $148 million could possibly have been an order to liquidate GNIC and sell its assets.
