Brassington cries ignorance on Pradoville Two deal

Dec 22, 2015 News

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NICIL’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Winston Brassington, is claiming that his entity was kept out of the loop when it comes to the details of the Pradoville Two deal.

In spite of the fact that it was NICIL that funded the development of the land, Brassington told members of the media yesterday, that he was not aware that the land was going to be allocated to members of the then PPP government or on what basis the land was going to be allocated.
Brassington said, “That is not my decision or responsibility and I was not in the know.”
In 2010, the Bharrat Jagdeo Cabinet made a decision authorizing NICIL to privatize state lands. NICIL is the body tasked with overseeing the privatization of state assets.
It reportedly spent more than $200M to develop the sea front community without the knowledge and blessings of the National Assembly and other relevant bodies.
The said lands were then secretly sold to the former Ministers and known friends and associates of the previous regime. At the time of the sale, the lands were grossly undervalued and sold at a price substantially below the market value thereby depriving the state of its full benefits.
During a press conference at NICIL’s Kingston office, Brassington was pressed by the media to say if in retrospect, he agrees with the manner in which the Pradoville Two deal was done.
He said, “I am an officer of NICIL and I acted on authority, on written Cabinet decisions …In an organization there is a hierarchy and unless it’s illegal, then I intend to follow those directions.”
The NICIL CEO explained that the role of his entity was “incidental.” He said that Ogle Airport Runway was receiving funding from the European Union so that it could be developed.
He said that it was a written condition that the power antenna at Sparendaam be removed because it would have interfered with the work required. Brassington explained that NICIL was asked to dismantle the antenna which belonged to the National Communications Network (NCN).
Since NCN is a subsidiary of NICIL, Brassington said that the cost to remove the antenna from Sparendaam to Onderneeming was seen as an investment.
“NICIL was asked to fund the cost of building a new antenna and we brought it over to Onderneeming. So that was our role. All the monies invested in the building of the tower and the antenna became equity in NCN. Additionally, NICIL was asked to do some development work on the land because Government was going to develop it into a housing scheme, and that was being handled by Central Housing and Planning Authority (CHPA) and the then Ministry of Housing,” expressed Brassington.
He continued, “All NICIL was asked to do was to fund the road into the compound and this was around $70M. We also had to relocate the Docker’s Club. Its relocation was to allow for the access road from the development onto the public road. All of this was approved by Cabinet. Beyond this, NICIL had no role or no knowledge in the allocation of the house lots.
“NICIL did not enter into any agreement or receive any money. All of the transactions would have been done through the CHPA and the Ministry of Housing…So on behalf of Government, we were asked to do some preliminary development work and expenditure was approved by the NICIL Board and Cabinet.”
Guyana’s State Asset Recovery Unit (SARU) had completed a damning report on the Pradoville Two deal, recommending criminal charges for the beneficiaries of the scheme.
SARU said, “There is a direct link between the misconduct and the abuse of powers and duties of their position. The former Cabinet members knew they were doing a wrong in transferring State lands into their names and that of their acquaintances for undervalued market prices for the land. The lands were sold for $114 per square foot at the time.”
“Public officers ought to carry out their duties, not for the benefit of themselves, but for the benefit of the public as a whole. If they neglect or misconducted themselves by their actions in the course of their duties, this may lead to a breach or abuse of the public’s trust. The act of the Cabinet members for their benefit is serious enough to amount to an abuse of the public’s trust.”
In a letter addressed to Public Security Minister, Khemraj Ramjattan, SARU had said that based on its findings, it is requesting that Ramjattan’s Office proceed to further investigate unlawful aspects of this matter, with the aim of establishing whether criminal action should be instituted.
“It is the duty of this Unit in the Ministry of the Presidency, to ensure that no Minister of Government in Guyana would be the beneficiary from any acts of misconduct or unlawful conduct while being holders of Public Office.”

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