Former NICIL acting Chief Executive Officer Colvin Heath-London was released from police custody on Tuesday over a lands probe even as further doubts have been cast on documents that are intended to put him in the clear.
Heath-London and others are at the centre of a probe of the disposal of lands at Peters Hall where the leases did not contain an express prohibition against the sale of the rights. Lucrative sales of the land occurred and those transactions are now in jeopardy.
On Monday, Heath-London’s attorney Nigel Hughes released receipts he said supported decisions of an alleged National Investments and Commercial Industries Limited (NICIL) meeting reflected in a “Board note” which NICIL has said seems false and that it would ask the police to investigate.
A release issued by NICIL’s attorney and company Secretary Arianne McClean later on Monday, stated that the very receipts were issued in July of this year and were done under the instruction of Heath-London.
The state holding company also questioned the purported meeting where only Heath-London, former Minister of State Joseph Harmon and now deceased CEO Horace James were present at the time, adding that it does not believe that the meeting referenced ever occurred.
NICIL pointed out that neither James nor Heath-London was a director of the board at the time the purported board meeting was to have occurred in 2018.
On Sunday, Hughes had supplied documents from the purported 2018 meeting of decisions with James but NICIL’s recently appointed Board, which made the complaints to the police about London’s actions, was swift to dispute the legitimacy of the document.
In a statement hours after a press release from Hughes on Sunday, NICIL had said that the unsigned document he supplied had been carefully examined by NICIL and it had been concluded that is it neither a document emanating from NICIL nor is it part of the minutes of any Board Meeting of NICIL.
Hughes on Monday issued three receipts for lease payments to support his contention.
“We invite the attention of the Press to the following documents issued by NICIL. (a) An invoice issued by NICIL for rent addressed to Jianfen Yu ( sub lessee) for rent for Land Lease Plots A17, A 18 and A 19) for 2020.(b)Receipt issued by NICIL to Jianfen Yu for the payment of the rental by the Sub lessee for the aforementioned properties,” Heath-London’s attorney said.
“We have attached copies of the invoice and the rent receipts. In the light of the contention by NICIL that document and decisions contained there were not recorded in any minutes of NICIL we merely invite your attention to the above documents which are attached to this Press Release and inquire whether NICIL was issuing invoices to sub lessees for rent for documents and decisions it contends it was unaware of,” it added.
NICIL swiftly responded, issuing the release through its attorney McLean, who has worked with the agency for years and who should know first-hand its operations.
“NICIL refers to the response of Colvin Heath-London to the Press Release issued by NICIL in relation to an alleged forged document purporting to be part of NICIL’s Board Meeting minutes and records. The said receipts attached to Mr. London’s response were drawn up and issued by NICIL’s Accounts Clerk upon being directly instructed to so do by Mr. London while he was Chief Executive Officer (Ag) of NICIL in July 2020,” the release stated.
“The said Accounts Clerk has already given a statement to this effect to the Guyana Police Force. Additionally, it has not gone unnoticed that the decision contained in the alleged forged ‘Board Note’ is being attributed to Mr. Horace James, former Chief Executive Officer of NICIL who is now deceased,” it added.
NICIL said that it should also be noted that NICIL’s deceased Head was not a director at the time of the referenced meeting. “The members of the Board of Directors of NICIL in January 2018 at the time the alleged ‘Board Note’ was created were Dr. Maurice Odle, Mr. Oswald Barnes, Mr. Berkley Wickham, Ms. Sonya Roopnauth, and Mr. Joseph Harmon. However, only Mr. Horace James (deceased), Mr. Colvin Heath-London, and Director Joseph Harmon were present as per the alleged Board Note. It must be emphasized that in January 2018, neither Mr. Horace James (deceased) nor Mr. Colvin Heath-London were Directors of NICIL. For all intents and purposes and based on all the records at NICIL duly examined, the meeting from which this purported Board Note allegedly emanated never occurred,” it added.
