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Kaieteur News pushing “vendetta agenda” against NICIL, Brassington

December 22, 2015 By GuyanaTimes

NICIL Executive Director Winston Brassington

…Glenn Lall upset Guyana Stores sued over outstanding $400M

National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) Executive Director Winston Brassington is under attack by the local tabloid Kaieteur News over his decision to take legal action against Royal Investments Inc (RII), part-owned by the newspaper’s publisher Glenn Lall and his close friend Tony Yassin after they failed to pay an outstanding balance of US$2 million for the Guyana Stores Limited, a close associate of Lall has said.

Kaieteur News Publisher Glenn Lall

The associate of Lall has confirmed that the newspaper publisher advised his editorial staff that every effort must be made to “expose” Brassington and NICIL through the forensic audits that were conducted into that entity by former Auditor General Anand Goolsarran, a close friend of Lall. This vendetta against Brassington had been pursued for a number of years, ever since the suit was initiated by Brassington. Because the case is still sub judice, more details cannot be provided, but they are widely available in newspaper reports.

There are claims that the recent forensic audit into NICIL may have been compromised; however, those claims could not have been independently verified by this newspaper.

NICIL issued a detailed response to the forensic audit, clarifying the various issues raised by the forensic auditor; however, those responses never found their way into any of the Kaieteur News reports. The response contradicted Goolsarran’s “findings” and conclusions on numerous occasions, but the rebuttals, which the former Auditor General had at his disposal, were not integrated into the report or countered.

Lall and Yassin, Directors of Guyana Stores, owe US$2 million of the US$6 million the property was sold for back in 2000 by the Government via NICIL.

Past due interest on the outstanding balance would amount almost to another US$2 million.

In the meantime, the profits of Guyana Stores are collected by Lall and Yassin.

Lall has always been a “sketchy” character with close associations with those who are not necessarily on the right side of the law, as was made explicit when WikiLeaks released a number of cables from the US Embassy in Georgetown.

In one that went back to June 15, 2006 – incidentally less than two months before the slaying of the Kaieteur News workers – the Embassy’s Political Officer, Benjamin Canavan reported to the State Department about various Guyanese who passed on information to him the previous week.

Specifically in reference to Lall, Canavan noted that “Lall has a sketchy past – he translated a shoe trading business (and rumoured involvement with alien [human] smuggling) into a muckraking independent newspaper”.

“He has a finger firmly on the pulse of Guyana’s underworld, which serves his media enterprise well,” Canavan said, referring to Lall. He reportedly snitched on his friends, and it is possible the one providing this information might be one of them.

Replies sorted oldest to newest

NehruBig Mouth Member

Editor and Chief Lall is not only a DUNCE but a pompous ASS!!!!!!!!!

12/22/1510:33 AM

Former Member

Goolsarran has no proof to back his claims – Brassington

December 22, 2015 By GuyanaTimes

NICIL Executive Director Winston Brassington

NICIL Forensic Audit

By Edward Layne

Former Auditor General Anand Goolsarran is “failing miserably” when it comes to backing up his “findings” regarding the revenue and expenditure of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL).

This is according to NICIL Executive Director Winston Brassington, who speaking on “Current Issues and Analysis” television programme on TVG-Channel 28 on Monday evening said Goolsarran’s report was inundated with wild assertions as he continuously failed to back up his claims with any evidence

Former Auditor General Anand Goolsarran

“When Mr Goolsarran comments on our financial expenditure and our revenue, and he is criticising some of these [and] for many of the things, he is criticising he is not producing any real detail of where he got his information from or whether the accounts are wrong or not. He didn’t provide any evidence that suggest that and so you have these contradictions. At the end of the day, someone has to look and ask has Mr Goolsarran done a proper job? And I think that we will find that the evidence is lacking,” Brassington said.

He added that Goolsarran could not legally support his claims that NICIL has breached Sections 216 and 217 of the Constitution, which state that all revenues or other monies raised or received by Guyana must be paid into the Consolidated Fund.

He said based on numerous legal opinions with “some level of depth”, it was revealed that Sections 216 and 217 of the Constitution did not apply to NICIL, since NICIL is a company.

“If we were to deposit all of our funds in the Consolidated Fund, then so should every single other company – GPL (Guyana Power and Light); GuySuCo (Guyana Sugar Corporation); Guyoil (Guyana Oil Company). That defies the reasons why you create companies; more importantly if you did that we would violate the articles and by-laws of NICIL, we would violate numerous sections of the Companies Act and we have been doing what we’re doing for 20 years and longer and we have not had a problem. We have many, many different people who have looked at NICIL and the way we account and do business, so some of these ideas he has put over, I believe, are not backed up by legal support,” Brassington stated.

He also chastised Goolsarran who in his assertions implied that the Audit Office of Guyana seemed to have conducted sub-standard audits of the NICIL books over the years.

“The current Auditor General has audited NICIL and for every year from 2002 when I became the head to 2013, we have had a clean audit opinion; in the words of Mr Goolsarran, a clean bill of health. I think you have an office of the Auditor General with a lot of professional and hardworking people and Mr Goolsarran’s comments would suggest that the audit wasn’t done properly,” the NICIL head noted.

Meanwhile, Brassington reiterated that NICIL was subjected to a Board of Directors and all transactions of the holding company were subjected to the approval of that Board, the extremely diverse Privatisation Board as well as Cabinet.

“All of our privatisations were sanctioned by Cabinet; all of our major transactions were approved by our Board and Cabinet. We have a NICIL Board; we have a Privatisation Board which has three Ministers on it and members of civil society, Private Sector Commission, consumer bodies, Trade Unions, so all of our decisions were not made by myself. There is a process and I am simply the conjugate in that process. There were layers of decision making,” he stated.

The hand-picking of Goolsarran and Christopher Ram to be among the forensic auditors to examine the books of 30 plus agencies, including the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC); the Guyana Gold Board (GCB) and NICIL immediately raised eyebrows as many argued that this presented a clear conflict of interest and bias and could destroy the credibility of the work.

Both Ram and Goolsarran were staunch critics of the previous Administration and had publicly commented on the financial status of a number of the agencies being audited.

12/22/1510:35 AM

kpHonorary Member

The government should take over Guyana Stores for non payment.

12/22/1510:59 AM

Bibi HaniffaGNI Queen

When last you saw Guyana Stores? Except for school clothes, it's all garbage they are selling in there. And everything is overpriced. I don't think the government want another monkey on their back.

12/22/1511:11 AM

Vish MSenior Member

Guyana Stores sells worthwhile merchandise.

This is not a political store, it is a business center

12/22/1511:13 AM

Former Member

Nehru posted:
Editor and Chief Lall is not only a DUNCE but a pompous ASS!!!!!!!!!

why when u drunk u have to act like a ass

12/22/1511:40 AM

Former Member

Bibi Haniffa posted:
When last you saw Guyana Stores? Except for school clothes, it's all garbage they are selling in there. And everything is overpriced. I don't think the government want another monkey on their back.

i hope they sell some thing to wash out your stink mouth

12/22/1511:42 AM

NehruBig Mouth Member

warrior posted:
Nehru posted:
Editor and Chief Lall is not only a DUNCE but a pompous ASS!!!!!!!!!
why when u drunk u have to act like a ass

Oh Rass AHOLE wake up. Did you get yuh Kakahole out yuh batty yet??? Good Marnin JACKASS.

12/22/1511:42 AM

cainTired old hippie

If Brazzy is not guilty, why does he not go after Gaskin for what Gaskin said about him being a thief? Brazzy would get skin up in a court room by the looks of it.

12/22/153:24 PM

Former Member

cain posted:
If Brazzy is not guilty, why does he not go after Gaskin for what Gaskin said about him being a thief? Brazzy would get skin up in a court room by the looks of it.

You haven't learned that PNC dictatorship is in effect heh!

12/22/154:13 PM

Former Member

Bibi Haniffa posted:
When last you saw Guyana Stores? Except for school clothes, it's all garbage they are selling in there. And everything is overpriced. I don't think the government want another monkey on their back.

Garbage you fit right in

12/22/154:19 PM

Former Member

Nehru posted:
warrior posted:
Nehru posted:
Editor and Chief Lall is not only a DUNCE but a pompous ASS!!!!!!!!!
why when u drunk u have to act like a ass
Oh Rass AHOLE wake up. Did you get yuh Kakahole out yuh batty yet??? Good Marnin JACKASS.

The worse drunk is a stupid drunk

12/22/154:21 PM

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Topics

Kaieteur News pushing “vendetta agenda” against NICIL, Brassington

…Glenn Lall upset Guyana Stores sued over outstanding $400M

There are claims that the recent forensic audit into NICIL may have been compromised; however, those claims could not have been independently verified by this newspaper.

Lall and Yassin, Directors of Guyana Stores, owe US$2 million of the US$6 million the property was sold for back in 2000 by the Government via NICIL.

Past due interest on the outstanding balance would amount almost to another US$2 million.

In the meantime, the profits of Guyana Stores are collected by Lall and Yassin.

Lall has always been a “sketchy” character with close associations with those who are not necessarily on the right side of the law, as was made explicit when WikiLeaks released a number of cables from the US Embassy in Georgetown.

In one that went back to June 15, 2006 – incidentally less than two months before the slaying of the Kaieteur News workers – the Embassy’s Political Officer, Benjamin Canavan reported to the State Department about various Guyanese who passed on information to him the previous week.

Specifically in reference to Lall, Canavan noted that “Lall has a sketchy past – he translated a shoe trading business (and rumoured involvement with alien [human] smuggling) into a muckraking independent newspaper”.

“He has a finger firmly on the pulse of Guyana’s underworld, which serves his media enterprise well,” Canavan said, referring to Lall. He reportedly snitched on his friends, and it is possible the one providing this information might be one of them.

Goolsarran has no proof to back his claims – Brassington

NICIL Forensic Audit

By Edward Layne

Former Auditor General Anand Goolsarran is “failing miserably” when it comes to backing up his “findings” regarding the revenue and expenditure of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL).

He added that Goolsarran could not legally support his claims that NICIL has breached Sections 216 and 217 of the Constitution, which state that all revenues or other monies raised or received by Guyana must be paid into the Consolidated Fund.

He said based on numerous legal opinions with “some level of depth”, it was revealed that Sections 216 and 217 of the Constitution did not apply to NICIL, since NICIL is a company.

He also chastised Goolsarran who in his assertions implied that the Audit Office of Guyana seemed to have conducted sub-standard audits of the NICIL books over the years.

Meanwhile, Brassington reiterated that NICIL was subjected to a Board of Directors and all transactions of the holding company were subjected to the approval of that Board, the extremely diverse Privatisation Board as well as Cabinet.

Both Ram and Goolsarran were staunch critics of the previous Administration and had publicly commented on the financial status of a number of the agencies being audited.

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