THE Kaieteur News has finally admitted that they “stretch things” after the recent public debate on the matter of NICIL/Privatization Unit. In the DEM BOYS SEH column of May 23, 2012 reads:
“De Waterfalls paper been exposing some things bout NICIL and nuff people wasn’t happy. Dem boys know that some of de things was stretching things a bit…” The two principals at KN, Glen and Adam, are so shameless. They see nothing wrong with. ‘… stretching things a bit’. Stretching things in my view is tantamount to lying,
deceitfulness, dishonesty and downright disgusting. It does irreparable damage to people’s characters, but for these two gentlemen all means are justified in order to sell their newspaper even if they have to manufacture the news or stretch things a bit.
These two “Paper Pontiffs” are today the paragons of virtue and the self-anointed supercats deciding who must fall today and who will rise tomorrow. Glenn, then a solely ‘walk and sell” shoes salesman was a very frequent visitor to a certain minister’s office during the PNC dictatorship. Adam has a history behind him. Only a few years ago, he and his Prime News promoted a malicious accusation against me because it could sell their news.
Sorry and apology are alien to their vocabulary, they will continue to ‘stretch things’ because stretching things is good business and the truth is bad for business. We can thus expect even more stretching of things by these two character assassins. They are not out to be a vigilant press in a democracy, nor about trust and justice, they are about bringing down, getting even and settling scores.
Glenn Lall says that it will take 100 programmes to get the answers about NICIL. I doubt that even if we do a 1000 programmes and the truth stares them fully in their faces, that they will ever concede to the truth. Mr. Winston Brassington, Ashni Singh and Bharrat Jagdeo have been targeted by the KN, for whatever reason only KN principals know. The new line of attack is to accuse Mr. Brassington of insider trading and to make it look as though he has sole discretion on the investment of NICIL/PU dollars.
The PPP/C, in the earliest years of its life, placed a policy paper in Parliament that established its privatization programme. It also set up the PU Board. NICIL was created as a private company by the PNC, It, too, has a board. The policies of these boards are set by Cabinet. Within the framework of government’s policies and good, sound business protocols, the Directors of the Boards would exercise decisions.
There is no one person show here! I served for five years on the Privatization Board, which included members from the Consumers Association, the private sector and Guyana Trades Union Congress. What is significant is that I can talk about the divestment of the GNCB Trust which happened during my time on the PU Board.
I can say with absolute certainty that NICIL never bought any shares from Hand-in-Hand Trust. At the time of GNCB Trust’s divestment, the shares issued were 2.5 million. We sold 2.25 million shares to Hand-in-Hand and retained 250,000. In 2009, all existing shareholders got bonus shares; for every five shares one bonus share was issued. NICIL received 50,000 shares and Hand-in-Hand got shares also. So the statement that Mr. Brassington bought 50000 shares for NICIL is totally wrong, but remember KN does stretch things a bit.
Mr. Brasssington is now being accused of insider trading. Since the divestment of the GNCB Trust, the government did not take up its position on the Board of Hand-in-Hand Trust (HIHT).
Unless I am mistaken and unless the principals at HIHT have been funnelling information to Winston, then I am at a loss to see substance in the accusation of insider trading. What I know is that Jonathan Brassington is a remarkable businessman in the United States and has been recognised umpteen times as such (see http://liquidhub.com/ourteam.html). He is a multi-millionaire in U.S. dollar terms and he would do his own due diligence before investing in any company. It is a credit to him that he is reinvesting his hard earned money in Guyana – a few years ago he sold US$38 million worth of his company which today has over one thousand employees. Guyana and Guyanese should be commending and celebrating these achievements of children of our soil.
Let them (KN HL and AH) thus stretch all they want; truth, principles and professionalism is on our side. Congratulations to Roger, Ashni and Brassy on a job well done.