The Guyana National Industrial Company Inc (GNIC), has paid government holding company, NICIL $148M of the $148.8M which it owed for unpaid debts.
The matter, which is currently in the course of settlement, is being heard in Chambers, before Justice Rishi Persaud in the Commercial Court, at the High Court in Georgetown.
When the case was called yesterday, Timothy Jonas and Neil Boston SC, attorneys for the National Industrial and Commercial Investment Limited (NICIL) and GNIC, respectively, reported to the court that GNIC has so far paid $148M.
The attorneys have indicated, that the two companies will work out the payment of GNIC’s outstanding balance of $860,870.
On February 1, GNIC paid the first sum of $60M to NICIL, as part of the ongoing proceedings.
The matter will come up for hearing and reports again, on March 8.
NICIL had made an application to have GNIC liquidated.
Court documents seen by Stabroek News show that on March 14, last, 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 had failed to pay the $148,860,870 award granted to NICIL in 2013.
NICIL 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 arbitrational 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 $148m could possibly have been an order to liquidate GNIC and sell its assets.
