Former Minister of Public Health, Dr. George Norton was yesterday charged with misconduct in public office by SOCU over the controversial renting of a Sussex Street bond for the storing of drugs which had dogged the former APNU+AFC government.
A release yesterday from the Guyana Police Force noted that an audit with respect to the rental of the Lot 29 Sussex Street, Albouystown warehouse facility, and which covered the period 1st July, 2016 to 30th June, 2019 had been conducted by the Audit Office of Guyana.
Pursuant to the said audit, the matter was then forwarded to the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) where investigations revealed that in 2016, Norton “unlawfully instructed Trevor Thomas (then Permanent Secretary) of the said Ministry not to engage the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) with respect to the tender and/or any submission of any justification for a single-source award to Linden Holding Inc. for the rental of the Lot 29 Sussex Street, Albouystown warehouse facility, for storage of pharmaceuticals, in accordance with the Procurement Act. Cap. 73:01”.
The release said it was determined that Norton further instructed Thomas to prepare a Memorandum for him to take to Cabinet for its deliberation on the matter. Thereafter, the release said that Thomas received a copy of Cabinet’s decision awarding a contract to Linden Holding Inc. for the rental of its Sussex Street property for storage of pharmaceuticals. The release said that Thomas was further instructed by Norton to sign the contract for the rental of the Sussex Street Bond which he did.
The release noted that the Agreement of Tenancy was made on the 20th day of July 2016 between Linden Holding Inc., with its registered office and place of business situate at Lot 1 Brickdam, Georgetown and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Public Health, for a period of three years commencing 1st June 2016, at a monthly rent of $12,500,000.
An advance payment of $37,500,000 was paid to Linden Holding Inc (LHI). This payment represented two months’ rent and one month’s security deposit.
The release said that Norton appeared before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court, where he was not required to plead to the charges as they were indictable.
Norton was represented by attorney-at-law Nigel Hughes and Marissa Leander. He was placed on $400,000 bail, required to lodge his passport and the matter was adjourned to April 27, 2021.
Forwarded
On December 23rd last year, Attorney General Anil Nandlall SC forwarded to Commissioner of Police (ag) Nigel Hoppie the special audit done by the Auditor General’s Office on the controversial rental.
In an accompanying letter, Nandlall cited the finding by the audit office that a police investigation be done of the matter and that criminal charges be instituted where necessary.
He ended the correspondence with the following request “Please execute the said recommendation”.
The rental of the building – from PNCR supporter Larry Singh – was only made public following questions posed by then opposition PPP/C parliamentarian Nandlall in the Committee of Supply in August, 2016. At that time, he reminded that over $50 million had already been paid in rent but the bond had never been used.
There was one highly dramatic sequence when an impromptu visit to the bond by MPs on December 8, 2016 – months after rental began – found not a single tablet.
Norton was later found to have lied to Parliament on the deal after he dismissively handled questions posed by the opposition. He lied on several scores including when he stated that $12.5m would be a saving on what was being paid to New GPC for storage when in actuality nothing was being paid. He also lied when he said that the bond was in use when it wasn’t. He was later replaced as Minister of Public Health by Volda Lawrence.
A Cabinet subcommittee was convened after Norton was found to have lied to Parliament.
The subcommittee’s report stated that the lease should be revisited and strengthened and if there was a refusal by landlord LHI, government should give a year’s notice of a termination of the lease and build its own facilities in the intervening period. “With respect to the rental sum of $12,500,000, it is the subcommittee’s considered opinion that the value should be re-assessed as it is likely that a similar facility could be obtained at a lower rate,” the report had said.
The deal with Singh to rent the Sussex Street property for use as a drug bond was said to have been initiated by the APNU+AFC government because extra storage capacity for drugs was needed. This was despite that fact that a government bond existed at Diamond on the East Bank, where more pharmaceuticals could be stored.
Rental of the bond also formed the basis of a private criminal charge which PPP/C MPs had brought against Norton. The charge was later quashed by the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
