Controversial local businessman Glen Lall, and other major shareholders who had entered into an agreement with the Government of Guyana through the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) to purchase the Guyana Stores Limited (GSL), had attempted to settle the more-than-one-billion-dollar debt owed for the mega-store by paying a paltry $100 million.
Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo
This past week, when he spoke to the duplicitous nature of the APNU/AFC Administration in regard to its selective release of information to the public, Guyana’s former President, Bharrat Jagdeo, made the foregoing damning revelation and opined that the GSL transaction should be among the agreements released to the public.
He said this agreement illustrates how persons would have entered into transactions with the Government but have failed to honour their obligations. Therefore, he opined, all such agreements should be made public, so the nation would be able to understand the nature of people who never performed on these agreements.
Tony Yassin
He suggested that because many prominent persons in society had failed to live up to obligations imposed on them in the agreements they had entered into, it might have led them to join camp with the AFC. “Because we (used to) pressure them to live up to the terms of the agreements (entered into with Government),” he explained.
The former President declared, “Glenn Lall and the others had to live up to the terms of the Guyana Stores Agreement, (but) they did not.” He then opined that Lall and his associates were “hoping to get a free pass.”
According to Jagdeo, “They wanted to settle for $100M (a liability of) over $1B. We said, ‘No, we going to court; you got to meet the agreement’.”
Jagdeo also opined that this “falling out” was perhaps what had led to Lall and his associates adopting a hostile approach to the PPP/C Administration. “So probably they left us because of that,” he quipped.
To date, Royal Investments Limited, the shareholding company under which the Guyana Stores Limited purchase was executed, continues to owe the State hundreds of millions of dollars; and the full extent of the liability is awaiting determination in a court trial.
Robert Badal
NICIL currently has several matters worth millions of dollars being litigated against Guyana Stores Ltd for outstanding liability to the Government of Guyana. Lall and Yassin, Directors of Guyana Stores, reportedly owe US$2 million of the US$6 million the property was sold for back in 2000 by the Government via NICIL. Past due interest on the outstanding balance would amount to approximately another US$2 million, or maybe even more.
The matter is sub-judice, but the Government-owned NICIL has moved to the courts to recover sums of money it is due. The legal proceedings, which were before Justice Roxane George at the High Court in Georgetown, entails NICIL suing Royal Investments Limited for failing to pay the balance of US$2 million for the 70 million shares in the company it had acquired for US$6 million.
In the meantime, the profits of the company are collected by these two owners, and shareholders have complained that they have never received any dividends since the company was privatised back in 2000.
Interestingly, with the 2015 change in Government, NICIL has paid some $40 million in taxes to the Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown (M&CC) on behalf of the Glenn Lall-owned entity.
UNSAVOURY PRACTICES
Jagdeo has accused another high profile member and financier of the Alliance For Change (AFC) of essentially stealing a company from Government through unsavory business practices.
Robert Badal, owner of Guyana Stockfeeds Inc, is current Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Guyana Power and Light Inc. His appointment was made by the APNU/AFC Administration after the previous office holders had been sacked.
Jagdeo on Friday openly accused Badal as follows: “Badal tried to steal the 30 per cent Government shares (in the Guyana Stockfeeds Inc) and we said, ‘No, we are going to go to court.’ Then he joined the other side… We hope that all of the agreements will be made public.”
Badal’s Guyana Stockfeeds Inc was recently castigated by the Securities Council in a ‘public advisory’ — for misleading its shareholders by claiming in its Interim Financial Report published for January – June 2013 that it had paid shareholders dividends amounting to $80,285,557, when in fact the company had not paid the dividends.
What had instead obtained was that, in 2008, the court had ruled in favour of an action brought by NICIL against Mr Badal’s attempt to unlawfully reduce the Government of Guyana’s shares in the Guyana Stockfeeds Inc from 38% to 7% by means of an illegal Rights Issue. That issue, created under the guise of raising capital to construct a wharf illegally on, and through, NICIL’s land, was giving Mr Badal almost 80% ownership of the company. But rather than restoring Government’s shareholding, as ordered by the court, Badal appealed the decision.
The court had in fact ruled that the business affairs of Stockfeeds were being carried out oppressively; that the company had not complied with the Companies Act; and that the Rights Issue was illegal, null and void. The court had accordingly issued an order restraining any further issuance of shares or increase in the defendant’s shareholding, or any change to the shares register of the company.
