Predictably, in its report on the IMF Article IV visit, the Department of Public Information (DPI) on Saturday stated that Prime Minister Nagamootoo had declared to the mission that “all is well in Guyana on the governance front”. The DPI report was typical of the cloying hyperbole that governments like this one revel in and why they continue to cling to discredited concepts like state information agencies.
All is definitely not well with governance in this country even in the very areas that were cited by DPI such as the Integrity Commission whose credibility has now been undermined by its failure to take action against senior government officials who have defaulted in submitting their returns and the judiciary where after four years of APNU+AFC governance there is still no confirmed Chancellor of the Judiciary and Chief Justice and the all-important Judicial Service Commission is still to be reappointed after the end of its tenure in September 2017.
There are many more examples of poor governance under this government including the murky public/private financing of the D’Urban Park project and just recently in the Prime Minister’s own bailiwick, the shenanigans associated with the dismissal of the Guyana Chronicle General Manager by its board over violations of financial best practices. What is particularly troubling about many of these cases is that there are few answers forthcoming from those who are accountable even as the government professes adherence to good governance and launches inquiry after inquiry into areas that it deems worthy of investigation.
One area now in dire need of investigation as it exhibits all of the signs of abuse of authority and unaccountability is the matter of the divestment of the assets of four sugar estates that the government closed and the activities of the Special Purpose Unit (SPU) which was set up for this task under the government holding company, NICIL. Last week, a breathtaking letter was dispatched by executives of the Guyana Sugar Corporation to Agriculture Minister Holder seeking the intervention of President Granger in curbing the alleged excesses of the SPU and expressing concern over its disposal of assets.
The letter said in part: “Additionally, we understand that tractors, punts and other valuable field and factory equipment were cut up and sold as scrap. This is most hurtful to us as managers of GuySuCo, as we know the struggles the corporation and its employees had to go through to acquire those assets which are now being treated with scant regard…
“We understand also that lands and buildings have been sold and leased. To date we have not received information from NICIL-SPU on any of the aforementioned transactions nor have we received the proceeds”.
These are quite serious allegations and require urgent attention by President Granger. There is one particular transaction that raises immediate red flags: the sale of two GuySuCo towers on Camp Street and at Drill, Mahaicony to Multicultural Communications Inc whose principal is Mr Bobby Vieira. Mr Vieira has very close ties to this government and has been engaged by it in numerous tasks including the same controversial D’Urban Park project. It goes without saying that any transaction between him and the state or a related agency must be able to withstand the highest scrutiny. Thus far this one has not.
The sale of the two transmission towers by NICIL to Mr Vieira’s company was done without any public tendering. This is highly unacceptable even if it was the case that the towers were considered to be scrap metal for disposal. The towers were sold for $2.1m when industry sources say they would have been worth a minimum of $10m. To compound matters, the sale agreement of February 1st, 2019 stated that the purchaser had agreed to remove the items 14 days after the passing of ownership of the properties. That apparently has not occurred as yet. This newspaper has learnt that following the sale of the towers, one has been leased to a TV cable service and that tower would therefore be considered a productive asset. NICIL’s Special Purpose Unit headed by Colvin Heath-London has been sharply criticised by GuySuCo in relation a series of matters including spending from a $30b bond secured from a consortium of bankers and is clearly operating with the full authority of the Ministry of Finance. It is all the more reason why this particular arrangement for the transmission towers requires an urgent investigation.
Ironically, it was another transmission tower at Sparendaam on the East Coast of Demerara which sparked years of Pradoville investigations about the abuse of state resources and finally led to a slew of charges under this government against former PPP/C government officials. Perhaps the State Assets Recovery Agency might consider the case of the two transmission towers as worthy of its consideration.
