THE National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) has come down strong on what it terms a “calculated, ill-informed, politically motivated” assault on its operations and senior management.

And, in a statement, the company stressed that these reports, driven in the media by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), have no foundation or basis in fact, but are made with the clearly deliberate intention of undermining and discrediting the major development projects initiated and led by the company.
“NICIL’s operations have always been subject to public scrutiny and NICIL is accountable and answerable to the Cabinet for its financial transactions made on behalf of the country. NICIL’s finances are subject to full public disclosure,” the body said.
It added that the company is audited by the Audit Office of Guyana and has received unqualified audit opinions each year, since 2002, an opinion that acknowledged that its financial statements are true and fair in all material respects, up to December 31, 2012.
“This unqualified opinion also endorsed that the financial performance and cash flows of the company are in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as issued by the IAS Board,” the company said.
NICIL stressed too that copies of its annual reports, as well as other reports, are available on NICIL’s website: www.privitisation.gov.gy for public scrutiny and have also been tabled in the National Assembly.
NICIL was incorporated under the Companies’ Act in July 1980, but began functioning as a Company in July 1991. In 2002, NICIL and the Privatisation Unit were operationally merged. A Management Cooperation Agreement (MCA) was signed appointing the Privatisation Unit as exclusive manager of NICIL and reaffirming that privatisation of NICIL’s assets would be conducted in accordance with the Privatisation Policy Framework Paper of 1993 (White Paper on privatisation). NICIL is a holding company owned by the Government of Guyana, and functions as a commercial company which does not benefit from tax concessions and is expected to be and is, in fact, financially self-sufficient. The primary objectives of NICIL are to subscribe or acquire or dispose of Government shares, stocks, debentures or other securities of any company, cooperative societies or corporate bodies.
NICIL’s privatisation transactions from 1993 to 2011 have been published in a report released by President Ramotar last year, listing every privatisation in the period and identifying the buyer and the proceeds from the sales.

NICIL’s operations, contrary to the repeated complaints of the parliamentary opposition, are subject to parliamentary oversight. The Minister of Finance has laid the Annual Report, including the Audited Financial Statements of NICIL for the year 2012, before Parliament. Since 2002, NICIL has successfully endeavoured to bring its own and the accounts of its subsidiaries up-to-date. In doing so, the company has filed in Parliament, to date, 149 sets of accounts representing the accounts of its various subsidiaries in the various years since 2002.
NICIL owns a number of subsidiaries, including Guyana National Printers Limited, the National Communications Network, Guyana National Newspapers Limited, Guyana Oil Company Limited, Guyana National Shipping Corporation Limited, Property Holdings Inc., Kwakwani Utilities Inc., and Lethem Power Company Inc. NICIL also holds minority investments in a number of companies. NICIL’s subsidiary companies are managed and operated by independent Boards and are financially independent, except the National Communications Network, which provides a combination of commercial and public programming and its satellite electricity utilities, where subsidies are used to compensate for lower tariffs in the communities in which they serve.
The NICIL Group of Companies employs a substantial number of persons, between them, making a considerable contribution in company and employee taxes to the economy of the country.
NICIL has, from 2002 to 2013, paid into the Consolidated Fund $11.9B in dividends from the profits of its operations and its various and ongoing investments. The company is a net contributor to the Treasury and its operations remain fully accountable and transparent.