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NICIL vs. Constitution of Guyana

May 03, 2012 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), to quote Matt Taibbi when referring to Goldman Sachs Inc. the Investment Bank, “is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.”
Replace face of humanity with Guyana and substitute money with assets owned by Government of Guyana and you have a sense of what NICIL is doing to the Guyanese people by shamelessly plundering assets out of Government coffers and into bank accounts controlled by agents of the People’s Progressive Party.
We have a Government corporation disenfranchising the people of Guyana and perverting the laws of Guyana.
The Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh attempts to use the veil of incorporation to justify NICIL’s lack of accountability and malfeasance. The Minister essentially argues that abrogation of the constitution is acceptable since NICIL is governed by the Companies Act.
The subjugation of Article 216 of the Constitution to the Companies Act is of no consequence to our learned Minister of Finance. Article 216 of the Guyana Constitution clearly states: “All revenues or other  moneys raised or received  by Guyana shall be paid into and form one Consolidated Fund.”
The Minister of Finance and the People’s Progressive Party pre-eminent authority on matters financial noted in Guyana Chronicle of April 30, 2012: Several other state-owned companies that operate within the confines of the Companies Act and they carry out their functions “retain their revenue and costs… NICIL is no different….” The worthlessness of the comparison and illegality of it all seems to elude the Finance Minister as NICIL holds an estimated $50 billion of surplus funds raised from the sale of government assets that is held outside of the Consolidated Fund.
The Guyana Constitution requires that government funds be held in the Consolidated Fund. The Companies Act does not require that government monies received by NICIL be held in the Consolidated Fund – nothing to see here, move along, leave us with our slush fund. The fact that NICIL has not been audited for the past several years is also ignored.
Not to be outdone, the inimitable Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon is quoted via Kaieteur News of May 1, 2012: “There are 20-something articles that underpin the creation of NICIL and none of them says that money from NICIL has to be put into the Consolidated Fund.”
The twisted logic of the Cabinet Secretary is that you can create a government entity, omit references to the Consolidated Fund and hey presto, constitutional requirements are irrelevant. The fact that the majority opposition is unable to oversee how funds received from the sale of government property are expended is of no consequence to the Cabinet Secretary.
The existence of NICIL in its current form is revolting to everyone who believes the Constitution is the supreme law of Guyana and if any other law is inconsistent with Guyana’s Constitution that other law shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be null and void.
The farcical squid of an entity called NICIL as it currently operates; undermines the Constitution as it relates to the purpose of the Consolidated Fund. Such blatant abuse of the law and disrespect to the Guyanese people should not be allowed to stand.
Until funds from the sale of government assets received by NICIL are properly accounted for in the Consolidated Fund; NICIL the vampire squid will keep jamming its blood funnel into the assets of the nation to the detriment of all patriotic Guyanese.
Nigel Hinds

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