He made the disclosure just before departing for New York on official business, after Government representative on the GT&T Board of Directors Mr. Winston Brassington announced the offer formally last week.

Brassington said the indication, about the 20 per cent share holding, was given to GT&T parent company, Atlantic Tele Network (ATN).

Mr. Jagdeo confirming the move, said liberalisation of the telecommunication sector does not mean ownership.

“I think we are a passive owner now. We do not make any decisions. In fact, most of the decisions are made by the majority shareholder in their interest and we are a passive recipient of dividends,” the Head of State explained.

He said: “As a shareholder, we have some serious concerns about some issues which, I think, were raised, Mr. Brassington has briefed the press on what those concerns are.”

President Jagdeo said he hopes that the money realised from this sale can go back towards developing the information, communication and technology (ICT) sector.

“…so that we can give more people access. You know we are trying to get more State purchased computers in poor family homes. We are trying to bring down the cost of bandwidth, so if we can subsidise bandwidth, we may be able to get more people connected to the Internet,” he stated.

During an interview with the media following the GT&T annual shareholders meeting, Brassington reported: “We formally indicated to ATN that we would like to sell our 20 per cent share in GT&T and we are first offering it to ATN. Should ATN decline to buy our shares, we would then seek to sell it to third parties.”

In addition, he revealed that Government opposed the accounts of GT&T for last year, on the basis that they did not consider the six per cent advisory fee to be a legitimate expense.

Brassington noted that last year, after a number of questions on the advisory fee, Government abstained from voting on the accounts.

According to him, the 1990 sale agreement with ATN and the Government of Guyana stated that management services may be provided by buyer or by its subsidiaries, provided that they are approved by the Board.

“We do not consider the advisory fees to be management services because, despite inquiries, they have not been justified as representing legitimate management services. Therefore, we cannot conclude that any of those payments represents value for services rendered,” he contended.

Brassington said Government views the advisory fee, which is quite significant, as a distribution.

He said within the last five years more than five billion dollars in advisory fees have been paid, averaging above a billion dollars per year.

“The company’s revenue last year exceeded $19B and, if you take 50 per cent of that in the last 10 years, it has been approximately $10B. And, since the privatisation of GT&T, over $15B in advisory fees have been paid.”

“We believe that the advisory fees should be treated below the line as the distribution. They would, therefore, not be eligible as a deductible expense. So taxes will have to be paid on the amount and National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), as a 20 per cent shareholder on behalf of Government, would be entitled to 20 per cent of that,” Brassington maintained.