–says decision to sell land was Cabinet’s

LEADER of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo says he could vouch for the two former government officials who have been charged for misconduct in public office.

According to reports, former Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh and former head of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), Mr Winston Brassington allegedly sold Multicinema Guyana Inc. a 10-acre tract of State land at Turkeyen for G$185,037,000.

The charge against them is that they sold the land without having procured a valuation from a competent valuation officer; sold an additional 103 acres of State land by an Agreement of Sale and Purchase to National Hardware Guyana Limited for G$598,659,398 (VAT exclusive) without procuring a valuation; and sold another 4.7- acre parcel for G$150M to Scady Business Corporation, when the said parcel was valued at G$340M million by Rodrigues Architects Associate, a competent valuation agency.

But according to the former president at a press conference on Thursday, “There was a process, and they could not have executed those decisions unless the matter was approved by Cabinet…

“Those were decisions of Cabinet and could all be justified. It is a Cabinet decision which had been issued back to the Ministry of Finance and to the Privatisation Unit to execute, so Brassington or Ashni Singh could not have executed these decisions unless the matter came, the recommendation was approved by the Cabinet.”
The opposition leader went on to say that all the transactions which went through the Privatisation Unit/NICIL from 1993 to 2001 could be found either in a booklet or digitally on NICIL’s website.

Jagdeo criticised the government for not being able to find a national statute with which to charge the pair, since they were neither charged for stealing money nor found with a big bank account, but for a procedural error.

In relation to the specifics of the charge, he is contending that in the case of the National Hardware transaction, there was a public tender which determined the prices.
He said persons would be able to see that they advertised for bids for almost two months, so persons had an opportunity to submit bids but they only received one.

In the case of Multicinema, he said they also went to public tender, and the highest bid they received was from Sri Yogendra for $16M per acre. But because he could not conclude the transaction, 10 acres were sold at $20M per acre which was higher than the initial bid.
“We did not hide these things,” Jagdeo said, adding: “When are you going to charge for the billions we owe, instead of procedural errors?”
He again contended that the lands which were sold did not even have a complex structure and were just undeveloped land.