—Charges against Singh, Brassington dismissed as baseless
The trend of the Coalition Government to push “frivolous charges” against former government officials when it is under pressure for corruption has been exposed again today with charges being filed by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) against former Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh and former NICIL Head, Winston Brassington.

This is according to Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, who addressed the matter today (April 12, 2018) at a news conference held at his Church Street office. He said, “Ashni Singh and Brassington were not charged for stealing money, or for being found with big bank account they cannot explain…not bribery….they were charged for misconduct in public office contrary to common law….for procedural breaches….they (SOCU) couldn’t even find a national statue to charge them under.”

 

According to him, if charges for procedural breaches are the new order of the day, the entire APNU+AFC Coalition Government Cabinet would be jailed, given the current state of affairs.

Asked about the future and the possibility of pursing charges, the Opposition Leader said, “We will look for infractions of the law, but not frivolous matters…we won’t have time to waste on frivolous issues…we will have investigations by impartial people…where there is misappropriation of assets those people will face the music….no public servant who is forced to do anything illegal if they keep records of being threatened to do these illegal things,” he declared, adding that attention is being paid particularly to the Ministries of Natural Resources and Public Infrastructure.

Jagdeo noted too that the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) is a seasoned political party and will not be intimidated.

CHARGES
Singh and Brassington faced three joint charges today. They were arraigned in absentia today. The charges were read before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan in the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court.

The first joint charge alleged that in 2008 while Singh was the Minister of Finance and Chairman of NICIL, he sold Scady Business Corporation a tract of land that is 4.7000 acres, lettered RU and XXX, being a portion of Plantation Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara which is the property of Guyana for the sum of $150M while knowing that the property was valued at $340M when valued by Rodrigues Architects’ asset valuation officer.

The second joint charge alleged that while Singh was Minister