November 27 ,2020
Dr. Ashni Singh who is currently serving as senior minister with responsibility for Finance and former NICIL Head Winston Brassington are both to continue facing charges of misconduct in public office over their sale of state lands when they had served under the previous PPP/C government.
Stabroek News understands that acting Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire SC recently handed down a ruling that the Magistrate’s Court can proceed with the charges against the two.
This newspaper made efforts to get a copy of the judge’s written ruling but was told that it is not yet available.
Contacted yesterday, attorney Sase Gunraj—one of the lawyers associated with the case said, “I understand that is the ruling of the Chief Justice.”
He told Stabroek News that they are reviewing the ruling to determine their next step.
After being slapped with criminal charges, Singh and Brassington through their attorney—now Attorney General Anil Nandlall—had filed an action in the High Court challenging the validity of the charges laid by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
The Chambers of the AG under the former APNU+AFC Coalition Administration had argued that the sales executed by the two had not been done with prudence or with an appreciation for market value.
At the time of the sale, Singh was Finance Minister, and Brassington, former head of the National Industrial and Com-mercial Investments Limited (NICIL).
Nandlall had argued that his clients were carrying out the mandate of government at the time, which had taken a political decision to have the lands sold.
The now-AG had then said that they were acting on behalf of NICIL. He had said it was this entity which authorised the sale and not Singh or Brassington and to this end questioned why the DPP would have singled out just two persons and not charged the entire board of NICIL also.
He had argued further that while one has to be a prudent vendor, assuming but not accepting that his clients were imprudent could not amount to their actions being criminal or that criminal liability should be attached to them.
He had said at best one may want to argue that it was a bad political decision to have sold the lands in the manner they were sold but that it could not be the standard of the criminal law that such actions should give rise to criminal liability.
Nandlall had argued, also, that the criminal law could not attract sanction for the use of an opinion on a valuation from one person against another. “So how are they charged with misconduct in public office when it was NICIL who sold?” Nandlall asked.
He had said that the transaction was standard procedure at the time, given the market value at which the government decided to sell, irrespective of an opinion of one valuation officer. “It is just that, an opinion,” he argued.
In their application challenging the validity of the charges, the men were seeking to have the DPP’s decision to institute the charges against them reviewed and ultimately quashed.
Singh and Brassington have been jointly charged with three counts of misconduct in public office over the sale of three tracts of government land on the East Coast of Demerara, between December, 2008 and May, 2011. In one instance, it is alleged that the property was sold below market value, while in the other two the deals went ahead without proper valuations of the land.
It is alleged that Singh and Brassington sold a tract of land, being 4.7 acres at Plantation Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara, which was the property of Guyana, for the sum of $150 million to Scady Business Corporation, while knowing that the property was valued at $340 million by Rodrigues Architects Limited.
It is also alleged that by way of agreement of sale and purchase, they acted recklessly when they sold a tract of land, which was a portion of Plantation Liliendaal, Pattensen and Turkeyen, East Coast Demerara, being 103.88 acres, to National Hardware Guyana Limited for $598,659,398 (VAT exclusive), without having a valuation of the property from a competent valuation officer.
It was also alleged that they acted recklessly when they sold a 10-acre tract of land at Plantation Turkeyen, which was the property of Guyana, for the sum of $185,037,000 to Multicinemas Guyana Inc, without procuring a valuation of the said property from a competent valuation officer.
