Cabinet top brass wants Brassington prosecuted

– But says “Minister Jordan should have instituted sanctions by now.”

If you do the crime, you do the time, and the top brass of Cabinet is in favour of Government pursuing a case for criminal charges against National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) Chief Executive Officer, Winston Brassington.
They indicated that his “acts of corruption against the nation just can’t be pardoned.”
“As such, we support Government taking the relevant steps towards ensuring that he does the time for the crime committed.”
These comments from the top Cabinet officials come just days before they are expected to meet to discuss the findings of the forensic audit report on NICIL.
The report which was done by Chartered Accountant, Anand Goolsarran, says that Brassington bypassed internationally recognized and credible companies only to engage criminal entities for the construction of the Marriott Hotel.
It stated that he failed to justify how millions of dollars were spent in the Linden Mining Enterprise and to properly account for their assets.
Goolsarran, with credible evidence in hand, also exposed how Brassington, on behalf of NICIL hid $1B in a secret account which was intended to aid in the construction of the Marriott Hotel, then he paved the way for NICIL to illegally fund the preparation of the Pradoville Two scheme, misappropriated billions of dollars, and kept $26B from the Consolidated Fund.
Some of the senior government ministers made it clear, yesterday, that they are not supposed to make pronouncements before the discussion at tomorrow’s Cabinet meeting.
One Government Minister said, “I am astonished at the findings of the NICIL report. Brassington needs to face the full extent of the law.”
“I am not finished reading the report as yet but based on how far I have gone already I am appalled at what this man  (Brassington) has done.
“When we were in opposition, we took a stance that this man must face the court for the financial lawlessness which took place under him and if we fail to do so then it will backfire on us.
“It is horrible to commit corrupt acts but it is equally damaging and obnoxious if we in any way appear to the public to be condoning it or treating it lightly.”
Another senior government minister said that it is a moral requirement for the administration to ensure that justice is served.
“The more the people read about the NICIL corruption, the more alarmed they get and the faster they want to see justice.
“But the Ministry of Finance seems reluctant to act. Why is Brassington still within the confines of the Ministry of Finance? The Ministry should have acted already instead of having him in there. They have administrative arrangements at their disposal that they could use to send him off, so why is Brassington still there? I don’t know. The question then arises as to whether there is any desire in that Ministry to see Brassington before the court for the wrongs done to this country.”
“When this government was in Opposition, it attacked this man saying that he has to be jailed and he will face the music should APNU+AFC be elected to office. Now we are here and we still have him on State boards.
“No letter or nothing sent for him to go on leave. These are concerns that were brought to me by the people too and I saw when these very concerns were brought to the attention of Finance Minister, Winston Jordan, during several Cabinet meetings.”
The Government minister insisted that several sanctions should have been taken against the NICIL CEO by the Finance Minister while the government would be going through the process of pursuing criminal charges through the legal channels.
“Brassington could and should have been sent home,” the government official said.
“We will now have to wait and see what plays out when Cabinet meets tomorrow to discuss this report,” the Minister added.
In the forensic audit report on NICIL, Chartered Accountant, Anand Goolsarran, recommended that criminal charges and/or disciplinary actions be taken against all those within NICIL responsible for the interception of State revenues totaling $26.858 billion in violation of Articles 216 of the Constitution and the related sections of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act (FMA).
The Chartered Accountant called for NICIL to be liquidated and for the appointment of a Receiver to oversee the liquidation process.
He said, too, that Government should re-activate the Privatisation Unit as a department of the Ministry of Finance to manage the Government’s residual investments after liquidation proceedings have concluded. In this regard, he noted that the existing staff of NICIL could be transferred to the Ministry of Finance.
Goolsarran also recommended that his report be forwarded to the State Assets Recovery Unit, with a view to recovering any State assets/properties that might have been improperly and illegally transferred to third parties.
He believes that there should be a further independent audit to examine in detail transactions over the last six years, given that the scope of his report covered the period 2001 to May 2015.
“In addition, considering the hostile, arrogant and demeaning response to my preliminary draft report as well as certain restrictions placed on this audit, it would be desirable for the Executive Director and the Deputy Executive Director to proceed on leave to facilitate the transaction audit,” Goolsarran added.
He said that Government may wish to consider whether it wants to retain the services of the Executive Director and the Deputy Executive Director in light of the findings and conclusions contained in the report.