Forensic audit recommends criminal charges against Brassington - Jaipaul Sharma

Forensic audit recommends criminal charges against Brassington – Jaipaul Sharma

Oct 18, 2015 News

As a forensic audit into the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), nears completion, Junior Finance Minister, Jaipaul Sharma, has confirmed that criminal charges have been recommended against the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Winston Brassington.
He said that these charges recommended are in relation to several cases of fraud and corruption which were found during the audit. Sharma told Kaieteur News that while he does not want to reveal too much at this time, he did say that there has already been a minor exchange on the matter with Brassington.
The Finance Minister said that some finishing touches are still being done to the report as it “exposes some alarming things, some acts of corruption which are just unbelievable and nauseating.”
Sharma said, “NICIL was being run in a haphazard way and made dangerous decisions that cost the company millions of dollars in losses. It placed the then government in a bad place. NICIL really was operating as the PPP’s greatest force in making corrupt acts realized. The more the forensic auditor keeps digging, the more dirt he finds on NICIL and how it operated.”
With a new board and Chairman in place, the government, some weeks ago, called on Brassington to explain NICIL’s investments into all projects over the years. He was also expected to state, honestly, the position of the company’s assets.
NICIL’s new Chairman Dr. Maurice Odle had said that there has been one meeting thus far at which Brassington was told to prepare a “position paper” to say what policies and strategies were employed to justify investments made by the company into certain projects.
He explained that the paper is expected to give good reasons for investments into the Marriott Hotel, the Berbice River Bridge Company and Pradoville Two scheme.
Dr. Odle said that the Board is already aware of some of the financial assets of the company which are held in several accounts. He reiterated that the Board is particularly interested in this “special business model” that was used to inform the types of investments made by the company.
The NICIL Chairman added that the Board has several concerns. “We have an issue with the dividend policy, the manner in which assets were transferred to persons, what really happens with the proceeds for privatization, the misuse of state lands, the degree to which funds are transferred from NICIL to the Consolidated Fund and one would also like an indication about what really goes into the selection process for certain projects,” the NICIL Chairman had said.
He added, “In any case, NICIL was just holding too much money and Brassington will have to say why this has been happening. Another concern of the board is the whole business of risk taking. With some of these projects, the former government in joint partnership agreements took most of the risk.
“How is the private investor not made to take any risk? So naturally, we are also concerned with some of the public-private partnership agreements NICIL got into and we want to know everything about it. We want to know why the state was made to take a lot of risk.”
Dr. Odle had said that he is also worried about NICIL’s shareholder control in certain companies especially since it has made huge investments while minor investors are given controlling interest.
He confirmed that he was speaking in this context about the Berbice River Bridge Company.
Experts very close to the Bridge have disclosed that the current contractual arrangements allow for two entities to control 50 percent of the company: The NEW GPC and Hand In Hand Trust Corporation.
New GPC is a company owned by Dr. Ranjisinghi ‘Bobby’ Ramroop who has close relations to former President Bharrat Jagdeo.
Dr. Odle said, yesterday, that Brassington has submitted the position paper and it will be examined next week to inform the future decisions to be taken with the company.

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