MAINTAINING that it is not in receipt of the outstanding US$5M from the sale of Government shares in the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT), the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) is expected to employ the method of arbitration to recover those funds. This is according to NICIL’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Horace James, at an end- of-year press conference held at the government’s holding company’s Kingston office.
“NICIL has not received the remaining US$5M from GTT shares which it sold… We are in the process of executing all the relief measures that are in the sales agreement in order for us to get it back. We have engaged our lawyers in the USA,” he said.
James explained that NICIL will be utilizing the services of the attorney who had assisted them in drafting the sales agreement, since that person was directly involved in the agreement process.
“They [the lawyers] recommended a company in the United Kingdom to help us in the arbitration whenever that time comes and when we are going there,” he said, adding that it is important for NICIL to use a UK company, since the arbitration will be held in London.
However, James made it clear that the holding company will not only go after the US$5M owed by Hong Kong Golden Telecom Company (HKGT), which is the company that bought Government’s shares in GTT.
In fact, he revealed that NICIL will also seek to recover interest costs, legal fees, the signatory for the agreement and even the person who guaranteed it.
“So that process has started and our lawyers have presented all the issues concerning the shares and said that it is a very good chance that we could get back the money,” a hopeful James said.
He dismissed claims too that the US$5M was written off by the Government, as had been claimed by the company. The CEO told reporters that documents received by Minister of State Joseph Harmon from the purchaser earlier this year, suggested that the Hong Kong-based company was under the impression that it had been relieved of paying the outstanding amount.
“The documents basically said that the purchasers of the shares indicated that they had a discussion with David Dabydeen and were under the impression that they were relieved from paying it. But that is not so, he said, adding that “NICIL sold you something and so you owe us. You made an initial payment and so the second payment has to be made. That is our major contention.”
In 2012, the former PPP/C Government made a decision to sell its shares in GTT for US$30M. A payment of US$25M was made with the balance expected to be paid within two years.
Billions invested in Marriott
Meanwhile, the NICIL boss said that most of the money that the holding company had, has been utilised in the Marriott Hotel, an entity which he said is presently unable to service loans it took through Republic Bank.
Additionally, he pointed out that all money collected from the Guyana Oil Company (Guyoil) has been transferred to the Consolidated Fund. He said that for this year alone, GYD$2.2B has been collected and transferred.
On the other hand, he revealed that more than 30 entities presently owe NICIL and moves have been made to recover those funds. Sitting in the top bracket of that list is the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, which currently owes $174M for Battery Road, which leads up to the Marriott .
The Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) owes $74M for work done at Sparendaam, while the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO) owes $61M for rental of a property at 199 Camp Street. Bobby Ramoop’s New GPC (Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation) also owes NICIL over $5M and has been written to about this debt.