Former Minister of Finance Ashni Singh and former Head of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited, Winston Brassington were this afternoon granted bail of $6m each on three counts of misconduct in public office when they appeared in the Georgetown Magistrate’s court.
They were not required to enter a plea before Chief Magistrate, Ann McLennan. The matter has been adjourned to June 5th.
The two had been no-shows when the matter had been called yesterday and the prosecution had been given up to today to provide evidence of the service of summonses prior to a possible issuing of warrants for their arrest.
Singh and Brassington however arrived in the country this morning and appeared at court.
They were jointly charged with three counts of misconduct in public office over the sale of three tracts of government land on the East Coast of Demerara, between December, 2008 and May, 2011.
In one instance, it is alleged that the property was sold below market value, while in the other two the deals went ahead without proper valuations of the land.
The charges stem from criminal investigations conducted by SOCU into the findings of a forensic audit of NICIL.