Marriott’s construction…Only a fool would say that NICIL’s money isn’t taxpayers’ dollars – Greenidge

Mar 15, 2015 News

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As for the claim that funds used for the construction of the Marriott Hotel are not taxpayers’ monies,

former Finance Minister, Carl Greenidge says, “NICIL head, Winston Brassington has to be either an idiot or an international con man. I am sure that he is not an idiot, except in the contempt he has for the public.”
NICIL was actually created during Greenidge’s tenure as Finance Minister.
The politician went as far as to state that only a fool would say that NICIL’s monies do not belong to the citizenry.
At a press conference held at the unfinished US$58M Hotel, Brassington told reporters that NICIL, as the principal owner of Atlantic Hotel Inc., built the Marriott “from its own resources earned directly from the sale of investments owned by NICIL, and from dividend returns from its investments, and not from taxpayers’ money.
“It provided (a further) US$16M for the completion of the hotel.”
He claimed that some of the proceeds from the sale of the 20 percent interest in the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company were invested into the project.
He said, too, that dividends from different investments in state-owned entities and others in which NICIL has a minority interest were also used.
Greenidge found Brassington’s statements to be “absolute nonsense.”
Greenidge explained that ‘taxpayers’ monies’ refers to funds that originated in state investments, the sale of state assets, dividends accruing from shareholding (a reflection of part ownership funded by the taxpayer) on behalf of the state, revenues arising from Government imposts such as royalties, and taxes all of which are intended for the Consolidated Fund unless the agency managing it is specifically exempted.
He emphasized that Articles 216 and 217 of the Constitution address this.
He said that NICIL is registered as a Government Company (100 percent state-owned) under the Private Companies Act.
He said that the controversy engulfing NICIL does not only arise from questionable arrangements for financing investments but from the government’s use of the agency in several instances.
The first instance he listed was that NICIL is being used as a conduit for transferring assets such as land to favoured entities and individuals, including PPP members, Ministers and their friends for next to nothing. On the second case in point, he said that it is also serving as a propaganda arm of the PPP and as a vehicle for conning the public, as when the press is told that it is a private company to which the representatives of the people and Government cannot give instructions.
The third and final point he mentioned was that the entity is being used to take revenues earned and dividends paid by other state companies and agencies that have nothing to do with the management of the state’s financial assets, and convert them to other uses completely unrelated to their mission and area of activities.
Greenidge said that this is a device intended to bypass the National Assembly and the requirements of the Constitution. In effect “it converts the agency into a de facto Ministry of Finance.”
He explained that the initial draft terms of the NICIL were prepared by President D.H Hoyte himself and subsequently examined, refined and finalized by the law officers and officials of the Ministry of Finance and himself.
“That means that its work was supposed to include advising the Government on and managing a consistent dividend policy, making recommendations on the real assets (land and buildings for example) coming to it and how best they might be redirected in the system.
“It was not intended to be distributing land and making de facto gifts to individuals or firms. It was not envisaged that it would be grouped with operational companies such as GPL and GuyOil whose revenues it would appropriate.
“These companies fell among a group of trading and service entities formerly overseen by the Guyana State Corporations, a form of Holding Company which was charged with setting a standard dividend policy, overseeing personnel and financing issues etc.”
The former Finance Minister said that the companies would normally pay into the Treasury by way of taxes, dividends and transfers, excess revenues which were not needed for re-investment in the company or to meet operational and recurrent costs.
The politician stated that the absorption by these companies by NICIL under the PPP regime was intended solely for the purposes of avoiding consistent policies, evading scrutiny and for bypassing the requirement to pay over excess revenues.
“When I started raising this problem of NICIL accountability in 2012 the National Assembly passed a resolution (15) calling for the Minister of Finance to submit audited accounts and annual reports as required by the country’s financial laws. The company was at that time, over seven years in arrears with the submission of its accounts to Parliament,” he said.
He said, too, that the Directors of Company Boards such as NICIL have fiduciary responsibilities and duties. Greenidge said that they are liable before the Courts for their actions and decisions which result in unnecessary losses of revenues and assets.
“We should start enforcing these aspects of our regulations especially because the decision-makers happen in the case of NICIL to include politicians namely Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh and Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon who believe that they are above the law,” the APNU executive member said.

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