MP Khemraj Ramjattan, Chairman of the Alliance For Change (AFC) said that he preferred to spend Tuesday evening with members of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) who were here for a seminar for parliamentarians rather than participate in a debate on NICIL aired live on state TV.
The lively discussions focused on NICIL and its role in the planned financing of the Marriott-branded hotel to the tune of US$19 million, and how much money NICIL has at its disposal.
During the discussions, NICIL Head Winston Brassington, Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh and Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon rejected the figure of $50 billion as being held by NICIL and called on both the Kaieteur News and the AFC to back up the number with facts. He said the number that the AFC was “bandying about” was arrived at using “jumbie arithmetic” and was “plucked from the air.”
Ramjattan repeated his stance of not wanting to debate Brassington, declining the latter’s invitation to such a forum. At Tuesday night’s debate, two empty seats with name tags on them were shown indicating that of Ramjattan and the other invitee from the AFC Moses Nagamootoo. “I didn’t want to debate him. I want to interrogate him [in the Economic Services Committee],” said Ramjattan at AFC’s press conference yesterday.
“The AFC maintains that the directors of NICIL are exercising these powers illegally,” Ramjattan said.
Citing the recent disclosure of the brother of Winston Brassington taking up shares in the now privatised Hand in Hand Trust Corporation, he said that when relatives are in transactions like this, there is always the presumption of collusion.
Brassington had said that the acquisition by his brother of 30% of the shares in an entity whose privatisation he had presided over seven years earlier was above board and not a case of corruption as Ramjattan alleged.
“It is a case where Brassington knew that his brother had money to spend on shares. Collusion is inherent when there are familial relations. “This smacks of massive illegality,” Ramjattan said.
Ramjattan challenged Brassington to take him to court over the allegations. “Let [him] carry me to court,” he said. He pointed out that there is no insider trading offences in Guyana but said, “I want to believe that codes of conduct might have been violated,” said Ramjattan.
During the programme, commentator Christopher Ram accused Government of not being forthright with documentation. However, Dr. Luncheon hit back saying that the lack of information never prevented the critics from writing what they want about NICIL. He said that if this was the detractors’ way of getting the Government to respond to the issues then the strategy will not work.
Speaking at his post –Cabinet press conference held at the Office of the President yesterday, Dr. Luncheon said that the utterances of the Opposition and other persons on NICIL are not helpful to the proper examination of the issues regarding the entity. He said that the efforts to criminalise the activities of NICIL must be condemned.
Dr. Luncheon acknowledged that there is need for a review of the operations and role of NICIL especially in light of the historical context of its establishment. “But the discourse is not helped by making allegations.
Dr. Luncheon said NICIL was formed by the PNC administration during a time when the Government wanted to get out of nationalisation of enterprises and was going for privatisation and divestment. “But times have changed,” he said.
“The discourse as to what we need to do now should not be informed by speculation and scandalous assertions,” Dr. Luncheon said.
