President Ramotar tackles corruption, transparency questions
…releases privatisation deals between 1993-2011
- $25.6B in proceeds -$11.7B paid to Treasury
Since taking office back in December 2011 and in one of his most significant moves to address lingering questions of transparency and accusations of corruption within the government, President Donald Ramotar has released details of privatization deals done between 1993 and 2011.
The release of the reports comes after years of pressure on the ruling PPP/C to come clean on details. There have been questions in the National Assembly and in the media, but the answers were long in coming. The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) assumed continuous power from 1992.
It was following the November 2011 General and Regional Elections that Ramotar became President, immediately signaling his intentions to address the accusations of corruption that faced former and current ministers and other senior officials.
Speaking at his first press conference for the year, the President made it clear that the transparency issue has been a sore one for a while now. At the heart of the problems is the operations of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) and its sister company, Privatisation Unit (PU). Both are state-owned agencies tasked with the management and privatisation of government assets.
The manner in which NICIL had sold properties had seen Government again and again coming under fire. The deals include the New GPC deal with the Sanata complex and the use of monies to fund a Marriott Hotel.
The release of the reports would clearly be seen as substantial and strategic move by President Ramotar to clean the image of his administration, and separate it from that of Bharrat Jagdeo government which has been tinged with corruption accusations.
According to President Ramotar yesterday, the reports are in depth and should “end a lot of speculations” regarding transparency.
Probably the most important of the report would be the “Privatisation In Tables, Phase 11-1993-2011”, prepared by Winston Brassington, Executive Secretary and Head of the Privatisation Unit.
Willing to talk Ramotar said that NICIL’s annual reports have been tabled in the National Assembly up to 2010, … so “all the talks of accountability…hope we can put that to rest.”
Government, he insisted, is prepared to engage the opposition on all the major projects. “I have said it and I will state again…We are ready to work with them on any information on any of the projects.” However, a number of the projects are still in the making and because of its commercial implications, it would not be possible to make these public. But the President said he was more than willing to engage the Opposition to make the details available. Once the deals are sealed, the details will be made public.
The main report, “Privatisation in Tables”, which was recently approved by Cabinet, updates and details an earlier one issued in July 2008, entitled “Guyana’s Privatisation Program: The Institutional Framework and Results for Phase II (1993 to 2009).” According to a separate statement from the Office of the President (OP) on the release, the report details every transaction handled by the Privatisation Unit and NICIL under the Phase II privatisation programme, started in July 1993.
The report contains information including date advertised, date submitted to the Privatisation Board (by the PU) for consideration, date submitted to Cabinet for approval and date transaction is completed. It also includes details of the transaction – type of transaction, name of buyer, proceeds received, final destination of proceeds—whether paid to Government or NICIL or any other entity.
The report summarizes all of its transactions from 1993 to November 2012.
$25.B proceeds Of a total of $25.6B in proceeds, $11.7B was paid to the Treasury, $6.4 B was capitalized (a form of privatisation), $4.8B paid to NICIL, and $2.6B paid to other entities.
“The Government noted the substantial work of NICIL, and the Privatisation Unit and the success of its stakeholder Privatisation Board, which includes members of labour, consumers, and the private sector.”
Government also pointed out that there was a substantial turnaround of state-owned entities relative to the 1990s, noting that since 2004, NICIL and all of its companies, have been net contributors in terms of dividends, taxes, investment, employment, without requiring Government funding, except in the cases of electricity subsidies to consumers and NCN public programming component. “NICIL/PU has also been at the forefront of developing public-private partnerships such as the Berbice Bridge, the Marriott project, and the Amaila Falls Hydro Project. The Government notes that in addition to the above, almost $13B in dividends has been paid by NICIL to the Treasury [$2.1 B from 1991 to 2001 (11 years); and $10.6 B from 2002 to 2012 (11 years).” Office of the President also stressed that most of this information is contained in NICIL’s accounts that have been public, with up to the 2010 report being laid in Parliament most recently. “The PPP-C Government is committed to transparency and accountability and will continue to expand and publish more on its companies (led by NICIL) and its privatisation programme.”