Finance Minister must tell nation what happened to billions at NICIL – Nandlall

Dec 29, 2016 News

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– calls for explanation on outstanding GTT shares, other issues

“As the guardian of the national purse, Finance Minister,’ Winston Jordan cannot expect to make a

dim-witted statement that “’NICIL is no longer rich. He must explain to the nation why this is the case.”
This was the assertion of Opposition member and former Attorney General, Anil Nandlall.
The politician’s viewpoint came on the heels of comments which were made by Jordan and carried by this newspaper on Wednesday.
The Finance Minister had expressed that it is no longer business as usual at NICIL. He stated that the entity is no longer as rich as it used to be and has nothing at the moment to transfer to the Treasury.
Nandlall, however, refuses to buy into the Minister’s explanations. He wants specifics. He wants evidence. In fact, the former Attorney General recalled that for years, APNU+AFC while in Opposition, had accused the PPP administration of hoarding billions of dollars at NICIL which were intended for the national coffers.
With this in mind, Nandlall said that the Finance Minister “must come clean on what happened to the billions which were held at NICIL”.
“The billions simply cannot vanish. Either it was stolen under this Administration, or APNU+AFC lied to the nation when it made those bold allegations that NICIL was hoarding billions of dollars. The Minister cannot eat his cake and have it. He is obliged to choose one of the two options to which I have alluded if he wishes to be taken seriously!” Nandlall stated emphatically
Additionally, since the Minister spoke to NICIL’s financial status, Nandlall said that Jordan must update the nation on the position of the US$5M which remains outstanding for the sale of Government’s shares in GT&T.
“The time for the payment of that sum of money under the agreement by which those shares were sold has long expired. The nation needs to be told what steps, if any, are being taken by this administration to recover those monies.”

Nandlall continued, “It may also be opportune for the Minister of Finance to say how much of the billions of dollars which were in commercial bank accounts and in accounts held by extra-budgetary funds, have been transferred to the Consolidated Fund.”
In this regard, Nandlall said that during the 2015 budget debates, the Minister had promised to transfer all these monies into the Consolidated Fund. In fact, the attorney-at-law opined that this was also a major platform promise made in the elections campaign by the APNU+AFC coalition.
Nandlall commented that 19 months after, the Minister ought to account to the nation how much money has been transferred from these accounts to the Consolidated Fund, and if all the monies have not been transferred as he promised, he must give the reasons why he is breaching his own promise.
When the coalition party assumed office, it had launched a series of forensic audits, one of which was conducted into the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited. The audit, which was conducted by Chartered Accountant, Anand Goolsarran, found that billions of dollars were indeed being transferred from various organizations to the entity.
In one instance, Goolsarran found that $1B was placed in a special account, while amounts totaling $7.320 billion were received from different government agencies for various works.
Government revealed to the nation last year that $1B was transferred from NICIL to the national coffers.
With regard to other transfers this year, the Finance Minister recently stated that there is nothing more at the entity to be transferred.
“There is nothing to transfer. They (NICIL) need lots of money, because remember, they are agents for certain agencies plus they are a holding company, AHI is a holding company for Marriott and NICIL is the holding company for AHI. So trust me, they don’t have anything to transfer.”
The Finance Minister said that in any case “it is business unusual” at NICIL. At the level of dividends, Jordan said that the entity is now only required to hold it in accordance with what was the original intent of the company, and then transfer in full to the Consolidated Fund.
“So there is nothing that NICIL has to hide. What they have is a very conservative board and management who like to stay away from the public and do things quietly. But I will talk to them about holding a press conference early in the new year,” Jordan said.
Since last year, Kaieteur News has tried relentlessly to contact NICIL’s Chairman Maurice Odle, as well as Minister Joseph Harmon, on a number of issues relating to the entity. But all efforts proved futile. It continues to be a case of the “royal run around.”

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