NICIL not retaining billions in dividends post 2015 – CEO

…claims $4.2B remitted to Consolidated Fund

The National Industrial and Commercial Investments (NICIL) has said since 2015, it remitted excess to the Consolidated Fund.
According to NICIL, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Horace James, in a release to Guyana Times, the entity has been remitting all dividends collected between 2015 and 2018 to the Consolidated Fund.
“During the period 2015-2018, NICIL received dividends of $4.219 billion,” James said his release. “$4.2 billion was remitted to the Consolidated Fund for the same period.”

He added that $19.9 million was retained by NICIL to cover its administrative expenses. “We wish to also point out that the Board of NICIL had requested a 10 per cent retention of funds collected. But that request was rejected by the Minister of Finance.”
Prior to the change in Administration in 2015, the then parliamentary Opposition parties, the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC), had been heavily critical of the powers wielded by NICIL. There had specifically been much criticism of NICIL retaining dividends from several State-owned entities.
According to a closely placed source, the APNU/AFC coalition Government continues to run NICIL the very same way it used to be run when they were heavily critical of its operation.
“APNU/AFC continues to use NICIL in the same way. In fact, they’ve taken all of (Guyana Sugar Corporation) GuySuCo’s shares and transferred (them) to NICIL,” the source said. “And they’ve taken all of the assets of GuySuCo and invested (them) in NICIL. They continue to run NICIL along the same lines (they previously criticised).”
The source added that Government has taken one of Guyana’s largest entities and placed it under the control of NICIL. Following Government’s decision to close the Enmore and Rose Hall Sugar Estates, and sell the Skeldon Sugar Factory, a Special Purpose Unit (SPU) operating out of NICIL has been leading the divestment process. Run by Colvin Heath-London, the SPU has contracted an overseas firm to do the valuation of assets, while advertising for various bidders who would tender for parts of the estate – from land to scrap metal. On the other hand, Government in 2016 purchased the 40 million shares Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) had in the Berbice River Bridge. NICIL had previously held shares in the Berbice Bridge Company Incorporated, but these were sold to the National Insurance Scheme.