FORMER Finance Minister, Winston Jordan, on Tuesday, appeared before the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court on a misconduct in public office charge and was released on $3M bail by Chief Magistrate, Ann McLennan.

The charge was laid following an investigation into his role in the sale of a prime piece of property located at North Cummingsburg, Georgetown, to BK Marines Limited, at an undervalued price.

Jordan, of South Ruimveldt Gardens, Georgetown, was not required to plead to the charge which alleged that while serving as Finance Minister under the APNU+AFC government and being the concerned minister for the government-owned National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), he, between February 26 and July 31, 2020, at Main Street, Georgetown, willfully misconducted himself by acting recklessly when he signed NICIL (Transfer of Property) Order, No. 50 of 2020, which was published in the Official Gazette of Guyana, transferring to and vesting to BK Marine Inc. absolutely, all buildings, erections, stellings, platforms and further appurtenances, at Mudlots 1 & 2, F of Mudlot 3, A, B & D, being over 2.553 acres, by paying $20,260,276, for a property valued over $5,000,000,000 and being sold at a price that was grossly undervalued to such a degree as to amount to an abuse of the public’s trust and without reasonable excuse or justification.

The former minister was represented by fellow party members, attorneys-at-law, Roysdale Force S.C, Khemraj Ramjattan, Joseph Harmon and Darren Wade. The case was adjourned until February 10, 2022.

This publication had previously reported that, on December 2, 2021, Jordan was arrested by the Guyana Police Force (GPF) in relation to two transactions done during his tenure as Finance Minister.

“The first transaction… relates to the sale and vesting of the State’s largest wharf facilities located at Kingston, Georgetown … and Minister Jordan issued a vesting order passing Title to the purchaser, without the payment of any further sum of monies,” police had said in a press release.

The property was offered for sale to BK Marine Inc. by former Chief Executive Officer of NICIL, Horace James, for the sum of $202,602,759.

The police release said that the vesting order noted that the property was sold without encumbrance and liabilities with no further monies owed by the purchaser. “Transport was subsequently issued for this property and the value strangely stated in the Transport was GY$400,000,000 (US$2,000,000).”

“Further, the Agreement of Sale stated that Title must only pass upon full payment of purchase price,” the police release added.

“The purchaser, BK Marines Limited, paid only 10 per cent of this purchase price, that is GY$20 million (US$100,000) and Minister Jordan issued a vesting order passing title to the purchaser, without the payment of any further sum of monies,” the release added.

The law enforcement agency informed that Jordan was also identified as being allegedly involved in a second transaction. “Investigators have evidence to establish that a facility that is a mere fraction of the size of the State property under investigation, located some seven miles upriver, was sold to a private company for US$17 million,” the release said.

The matter that is now before the court was made public in early 2020 when it was reported in the media that the sale of the property had occurred just days before the 2020 General and Regional Elections were held

Also of concern was the fact that cabinet had apparently granted approval to NICIL for the sale of the property.

By its own admission in an April 2020 statement, NICIL said: “In October 2019, NICIL received approval [for the sale of the land in question], following which the vesting order was prepared, signed and gazetted.”

At the time of the approval, the cabinet was defunct, a consequence of the court rulings made following the successful passage of the no-confidence motion in December 2018.

In February 2019, now Opposition Leader, Joseph Harmon, who was then the Minister of State, said that cabinet had not been meeting because of the January 2019 ruling by the High Court that the no-confidence motion was successfully passed against the APNU+AFC administration.

The State has since commenced legal proceedings at the High Court to repossess the property. The proceedings, which was initiated by Attorney-General and Legal Affairs Minister, Anil Nandlall, S.C., on behalf of the State, listed BK Marine Inc., Jordan, former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), Colvin Heath-London and NICIL as the respondents.

The Attorney-General had contended that Jordan, in collusion and in conspiracy with NICIL, acted in a reckless and negligent manner in vesting the property, having full knowledge and being aware that BK Marine Inc. only paid 10 per cent of the undervalued purchase price.

He is further contending that on March 28, 2020, when the Vesting Order was issued, neither Jordan nor the government of the day had the legal power and authority to do so and was acting unlawfully, committing a misfeasance in public office.