In our last two articles, we discussed the operations of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Ltd. (NICIL) in the light of the recent controversy over the State-owned company’s involvement in major land deals in Ogle on the East Coast Demerara, Peters Hall on the East Bank Demerara and Wales on the West Bank Demerara. This was at a time when Government’s status was that of a caretaker Administration pending the outcome of the 2 March 2020 elections.
Some of the most troubling aspects of the land deals include allegations of: (i) the lack of transparency in the transactions, absence of valuation of the lands involved, and in some cases lack of the requisite approval by the NICIL board and/or the Cabinet; (ii) conspiracy to have some of the lands in the Peters Hall area leased to persons and to almost immediately have them ‘flipped’ to the intended beneficiaries in exchange for considerable sums of money; and (iii) serious conflict of interest in these land deals involving person(s) attached to NICIL.
