OBJECTIVE ASSESSMENT OR DUE PROCESS?
September 25, 2015 | By KNews | Filed Under Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom, Source
The government does not need to put on a charade in order to remove the Executive head of NICIL. One top government official, considered by many as more powerful that the Prime Minister had long signaled that the top official of NICIL does not enjoy the confidence of the government and can never enjoy such confidence.
This was a clear signal that the head of NICIL would eventually be removed. It was therefore ingenious to read in last Sunday’s edition of this newspaper that the new Board of NICIL has asked the Head of NICIL to explain NICIL’s investments into all of its projects.
This is quite a task and a very strange request. NICIL has always had a Board. In the past this was a highly politicized Board but it did have representation at one time from the trade union movement. Investments by NICIL would have had to have been sanctioned by the old Boards. It is these Boards who are the ones who need to be explaining their investments.
But of course the argument can be made that the Head of NICIL needs to provide reasons for the investments since he is the Chief Executive Officer. But it would not be fair to view those investments as being his investments since the old Boards would have most likely had to approve of them.
It is hoped that this request for an explanation is not a way of allowing due process to the Head of NICIL before he is axed. Why would the new Board be asking for an explanation of the investments made by NICIL when in fact those investments are done deals? There is no way those investments can be reversed. The hands of time cannot be turned backwards.
Is it because the Board wants to make an objective assessment of those investments? This would be strange because the new government has long indicated its opposition to most of these investments.
In fact, it needs to be questioned why persons are sitting on NICIL Board when that entity is not being treated as a body corporate by the government. The government has made it clear that its policy is not to have parallel treasuries and therefore the funds held by NICIL will have to be paid into the Consolidated Fund, thereby removing its corporate status.
The forces that comprise the government were very vocal when in opposition about their opposition to most of the investments made by NICIL. It was to be expected, therefore, that the government would not be interested any longer in any rationale for these investments since most of them were not considered by the government to be in the best interest of Guyana.
The report that the new Board is asking for an explanation therefore begs the question as to whether this explanation is because the new Board wants to make an objective appraisal of these investments made by NICIL. Or could it be that this request for an explanation is part of the due process being accorded to the Head of NICIL so that if the explanation is deemed unsatisfactory, it can form the basis for his dismissal.
This latter scenario would be unfortunate. For one, the government does not need such a basis to end the employment of the Head of NICIL. The government has already expressed an opinion on the future of the head of NICIL.
Two, the Head of NICIL would not have been the person with the ultimate authority to approve of those investments. The old Boards had such authority and it was those Boards that are ultimately accountable for these investments. And the last of those Boards has already been fired.