SPU officials implicated in multimillion-dollar GuySuCo scrap metal scandal

– as NICIL staff speak out; blow whistle on backroom deals, kickbacks

Staff members of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) itself have stepped forward to blow the whistle on a scandal involving the sale of Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) assets without tenders to an exporter with a chequered past.

NICIL’s Special Purpose Unit (SPU) was formed by the coalition Government to coordinate the divestment of GuySuCo assets. But according to the staff who stepped forward on condition of anonymity, certain officials at NICIL/SPU have been making backroom deals with select scrap metal exporters and profiting handsomely from it.
One exporter in particular is an Indian national, who, according to the staff, is related to one of the officials. This exporter, the staff said, was given the contract to purchase scrap metal from GuySuCo which he proceeded to export out of Guyana by the container load over the past year. This, the staff noted, is despite the fact that the exporter was once implicated in a scandal involving the forgery of customs documents to export scrap metal.
“Given all the media coverage that has been on this agency, in particular over the sale of GuySuCo’s broadcast towers, I’d like to let you know this is only the tip of the iceberg as you would imagine.
“For the year, containers of scrap metal worth millions of dollars but given away for cheap have already been shipped out of the country (by the exporter) that originated from GuySuCo,” the whistleblower said.
He said the officials in question have met with the exporter and his associates right at NICIL’s office, where they discussed various avenues of buying assets from NICIL. Nor is that all. According to the whistleblower, the two officials were paid $10 million and $5 million respectively for facilitating the scrap metal deal.
“After heat came from the media on NICIL and the SPU, these two officials have hastily been taking documents away from our office in an effort to remove traces of this transaction. It is a shame to see the blatant giving away of the assets of this company when there was no tender out and other legitimate businesses would have approached NICIL, but (were) turned away,” the whistleblower added.

Deals
These disclosures come in the midst of concerns and media reports about another deal NICIL/SPU brokered; this time for the sale of two transmission towers owned by GuySuCo to Bobby Vieira’s Multicultural Communications Inc for a mere $2.1 million. Persons had opined that the towers should have fetched no less than $10 million. One of the towers, reports suggest, have since been leased to another company.
It is understood that GuySuCo officials themselves wrote a letter about the matter to Agriculture Minister Noel Holder, in which they had noted that “we recently saw a draft agreement of sale whereby Mr (Colvin) Heath-London through NICIL is in the process of, or perhaps has sold GuySuCo’s Transmission Tower located at Drill, Mahaicony to a company named Multicultural Communications Inc (Please see attached). Again, that property was not vested to NICIL and would be another unlawful act by NICIL”.
In the wake of this transaction, Transparency Institute Guyana Incorporated (TIGI) had called for answers. In an interview with this publication on Sunday, TIGI President, Dr Troy Thomas noted that NICIL/SPU must provide answers on the sale.
“They must answer questions about how that (transaction) was done and whether the laws were followed. And if the laws were not followed, then that would come under SARA (State Assets Recovery Agency) at this point, although there can be other agencies. But we definitely need to make sure that things were done properly and if they were not done properly, then those responsible must be held accountable,” Dr Thomas had urged.
Since the story broke, Vieira, who has had ties to the coalition Government and served as the assistant events coordinator for President David Granger’s inauguration in 2015, has been directing questions to the relevant authorities.
Repeated attempts by this publication to make contact with NICIL’s SPU Head Heath-London, whose agency has responsibility for divesting GuySuCo of its assets, were futile. Meanwhile, another advertisement has been put out by the entity seeking bids for scrap metal from the estates being divested.