Six months after Minister of State Joseph Harmon travelled to China to settle the matter of $5M owed for the purchase of 20% of Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT) shares, the outcome of the trip remains unclear.
Harmon had travelled to China in March and the government had said that the visit was for the purpose of engaging in discussions with regard to the payment of the outstanding balance owed to it by Chinese company Datang Telecom Technology and Industry Group for the purchase from the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) in 2012.
This deal was entered into by the PPP/C administration but only US$25 million of the agreed US$30 million was known to have been paid.
After Harmon’s return, Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman, at a post-Cabinet press conference in April, said the money had been collected and Harmon had obtained documents from his trip which showed that it was paid over prior to the APNU+AFC coalition taking office.
However, NICIL said no money had been paid.
Asked at a post-Cabinet press briefing last Thursday to elaborate on the contents of the documents he returned with, Harmon said, “it is not for me to elaborate. I was on assignment for the NICIL Board.
The Board and Chairman of the Board will decide how they will handle that information. To offer any elaboration is to go beyond the scope of what I was asked to do.”
On April 28, NICIL, in a statement signed by the Chairman of the Board Maurice Odle, outlined the agreement that had been made between the NICIL and Hong Kong Golden Telecom Company Limited (HKGT). It said that that on November 8, 2012, US$25 million was wired to NICIL’s account and the balance of US$5 million became due and payable to NICIL on October 22, 2014 and the despite several written requests by NICIL, HKGT has still failed to pay the balance of the purchase price.
The Board’s April release also noted that to its knowledge, “neither HKGT nor its related companies have alleged that the balance of US$5 million was paid.”
“What was alleged by the purchaser’s signatory to the agreement was that following a series of communications with the former Guyana Ambassador to China (to be authenticated) HKGT was assured that they were not required to pay the balance of US$5 million, because the HKGT had not been granted the same minority protection rights enjoyed by NICIL (i.e. two, instead of one, representatives on the GT&T Board of Directors) which HKGT alleged were promised to them. HKGT also alleged that the decision to waive the US$5 million was contained in a side agreement,” NICIL had said.
HKGT’s claim of a waiver is yet to be verified and NICIL has asked the Guyana government to assist in this regard. NICIL said that another press release would be issued at the end of the verification process but this has not happened yet.
Trotman’s statement about Harmon securing documents on the outstanding payment to NICIL had come at the height of a controversy over contact that Harmon had on the China trip with officials of controversial Chinese logging company Baishanlin and businessman Brian Tiwari. Observers had said that the announcement about the documents appeared intended to deflect attention from the Harmon controversy.
Trotman would later say that he might have misinterpreted the meaning of “fully paid.”
He explained that he had only reported what he understood following the return of Harmon from China. Trotman told Stabroek News that when he heard about money being paid in full, his assumption was that it was the $30M (a US$25 first payment followed by the balance).
“But apparently there was some document that shows that the company said it was excused from paying that extra (US$)5, which would mean that my understanding of paid in full was not (US$) 30,” he said.
