Months have passed and it appears as though the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) has no intention of releasing the findings of a report on the missing US million GTT shares. NICIL had sold the Government’s shares in GTT for US million of which US million was received at the signing of the agreement. The outstanding balance, which should have been paid by the end of December 2015, has not been discovered.
Over the past two weeks, a number of media reports have highlighted the fact that the report on the findings of the probe into the missing money is with NICIL.
However, as has become the ostensible norm in Guyana, officials use the bureaucracy of the system to withhold answers that the public demands. This was evident last week when the media sought answers about what really happened to the missing US$5 million but the responsibility for such a disclosure shifted from one agency to another. This supports Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo’s comments that it is “clear as day” that NICIL does not want to release the findings on the issue.
The chronicle of events on the missing US$5 million started earlier this year when Government announced that it recovered documents, which revealed that the monies were paid. However, controversy erupted shortly thereafter when NICIL shut down the Government’s claims by announcing that Guyana’s former Ambassador to China David Dabydeen had facilitated the US$5 million debt waiver with Datang, the Chinese company, on the grounds that it was not granted the same minority protection rights enjoyed by NICIL (that is, two, instead of one, representatives on the GTT Board of Directors).
What is, however, baffling is the fact that when the US$25 million was paid, it was made by international wire transfer, from one bank to another. In this information technology driven world, such a payment can be easily traced. Then what is the hold-up? Why this cannot be done rather than shirking the public?
In one instance Chairman of NICIL Board, Dr Maurice Odle said that he cannot furnish a response to the media but rather that was the responsibility of the Government.
However the Government, through Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, made it pellucid that it was NICIL’s responsibility to release any findings on the issue.
It was only then that Dr Odle asked the media to furnish an official letter to NICIL requesting information which he will present to the Board.
All of this is being done at a time when there is much criticism about the accountability or transparency of the Administration. The public genuinely deserves an answer about the US$5 million and further delays will only add to the fire of the lack of transparency on major decisions for the nation.
There is no doubt that the creation of public trust in the accountability and transparency of any administration will foster goodwill for the nation. As such, Guyana should move towards a more effective, robust, answerable system to safeguard taxpayers’ money. We can start by revealing to taxpayers exactly what happened to the US$5 million.
NICIL must come clean on its affairs and cease to argue in its defence that it is a Private Company registered under the Companies Act and as such, is under no obligation to make any disclosure.
NICIL is but one of the guardians of public affairs and public monies and were the David Granger Administration to attempt to display some modicum of its commitment to its promise of transparency and accountability, then a good place to start would be to reveal exactly what happened to US$5 Million—G$1 Billion, monies that could have gone towards putting measures in place to begin paying its employees a liveable wage and not the pittance it has made in its ‘final offer.’
