FORMER Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Linmine Secretariat, Horace James, will today commence his first working day as head of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL)Winston Brassington, who was in charge of that holding company, has been sent on administrative leave pending an audit investigation by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU).

In an exclusive interview with the Guyana Chronicle, James said that even though he would be working in Georgetown, his base will still be Linden, as his heart is in his home town and he is devoted to Linden.

He said the NICIL Board invitation to occupy the position came as a surprise, but he accepted and tendered his resignation as CEO of the Linmine Secretariat.

James served as CEO of the Linmine Secretariat for 16 years. He has also served in several managerial positions in the Bauxite Company since returning from studies in the UK, where he was trained as a mining engineer.

He spent three years in the United Kingdom, and came back willingly as there were no legal commitments to do so. James was initially appointed a project engineer, and was later appointed senior engineer of the Bauxite Company.

He was then asked to become the Regional Chairman. He served in that capacity in 1980. James’s passion for engineering contributed to his short stint in that post, as he returned to the Bauxite Company to continue service as a mining engineer.

“I was of the opinion that being a Regional Chairman was a part-time job that I could have done after work, but when it dawned on me that it was a full-time job, I just spent one year and returned to mining,” he told this publication.

SEASONED MANAGER
Upon his return, he served in the capacity of Deputy CEO, and was appointed CEO in 1998. James was later appointed Chairman of the Linden Electricity Company Inc (LECI) in 2003.

Apart from the aforementioned appointments, Mr James played an integral role in establishment of the Linden Museum, as he possesses a wide array of knowledge on the history of the town, especially as it relates to bauxite mining.

President Granger, in his address at the launch of LEN in November, told the residents of Linden that he does not know what the town would do without Mr James, who has played a pivotal role it its development.

James has also served as a Director of the Linden Technical Institute and the Linden Community Development (LCD), which started in 1970. The purpose of LCD was to change the town from company-owned to residents-owned.
The heading of NICIL by Mr James comes at a time when Mr Brassington is in the hot seat over a number of projects undertaken by NICIL under his watch, including the Marriott Hotel and the Berbice River Bridge Project.

Mr Brassington was sent on leave amidst an official probe to ascertain if any “criminality” was involved in the management of NICIL. A leaked forensic audit report on the operations of NICIL suggested that under the watch of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government, NICIL had engaged in malpractices, and had made poor decisions on behalf of the people of Guyana.

Horace James has said that the Linden Secretariat was a subsidiary of NICIL, and he had never experienced any corruption in his dealing with the company.

He posited that the workers he had dealt with were very professional, and he said he hopes to continue having that working relationship with them.