- from 1993 to November 2012. ‘There is no cloud over any of the evaluations of any privatisation transaction…and government is willing to address any questions on any specific valuations’ – Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh MINISTER of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh

said there “is no cloud over any of the evaluations of any privatisation transactions”  handled by the Privatisation Unit (PU) and the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Ltd (NICIL)  over the past decade. And to hammer home his point, Dr. Singh said government is willing to address “any questions on any specific valuations.”

Winston Brassington

Dr Ashni Singh

When asked about third party verification of the information contained in the report, Dr. Singh reiterated that a lot of the information contained in the report is already publicly available. In addition, he mentioned that all of the entities are themselves subject to audit. According to him, whether it is a government institution or a public operation, as long as it is a public sector entity, it has to be audited. “Each one of those public sector entities would be subject to audit, so at the particular time of the transaction concerned, those transactions would have been audited as part of those entities,” he related. The minister further advised that the government welcomes and encourages open and free debate on any issue of public interest, pointing out that in the very studio where the press conference was held, they had participated in a series of debates on the issues of corruption and openness and transparency in government. He reiterated that the government continues to have no difficulty with open and frank discussion on any issue of national public interest or importance. However, he said that with the placing of the information contained in the privatisation report within the public domain, it is hoped that there would be more informed comment. “Rather than some of the resort to sensationalism and misrepresentation that sometimes passes off as analysis and sometimes are made to pass off as objective commentary, what we would like to see and what we would encourage is objective, fact-based discussion and commentary and analysis and debate,” he posited. Dr. Singh also told reporters that the information presented in the report represents “a very important compilation of records” which is the result of a very robust system of record keeping being maintained. According to him, it represents a formidable institution of architecture that had to be put in place from the earlier days of the privatisation transactions to first, ensure that there were accountable systems and second, that there was good record keeping. “…you have transactions now going back to 1993 which is a long time ago. It is to the credit of the Privatisation Unit that we are able to compile this document with this information and it bears testimony to the fact that this government has ensured the existence of such systems, that is to say systems that have documented our public transactions and is committed to placing that information in the public domain,” the Finance Minister stressed. NO QUESTIONS LEFT UNANSWERED Yesterday’s news conference also saw questions being raised about, among other things, information not being made available to opposition Members of Parliament on the privatisation of the Sanata Complex. Minister Singh stated emphatically that by the end of the 9th Parliament, there was not a single question raised during that Parliament that was left unanswered by Government Ministers and this could be verified through the Parliament records. He challenged the reporter who posed the question to name a specific question or instance which was not answered. Unfortunately, the minister noted that this could not be done. Pointing to the Privatisation Report, Minister Singh said it was the result of a very robust system of record-keeping and a comprehensive attempt representing a formidable effort by the Privatisation Unit. On the charge of ‘persons close to’ the government being involved in transactions and alleged shady deals, Minister Singh stated unequivocally, that each transaction could be laid bare in detail without exemption regardless of who is involved. The Finance Minister stated unapologetically that issues and questions raised by the opposition are politically conjured and emphasised that at no point in Guyana’s history has the operations of government been as open and transparent as they are now. Minister Singh also noted that every single citizen, regardless of their friendships or political persuasions and affiliation has a constitutional statutory protected right to participate and invest in the nation’s economy which is a free one. Nevertheless, government’s obligation is to ensure that for all transactions, there are open, transparent accountable systems in place which can withstand scrutiny and this has been accomplished.
CONCESSIONS CLAIM DISMISSED Minister Singh dismissed the claim that concessions were granted by Ministerial discretion. He explained that the investment incentive regime which is in operation does not provide room for that since it is provided by technical agencies such as Go-Invest and the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and in some cases NICIL, where a privatisation transaction is involved. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of National Industrial and Commercial Investments Ltd. (NICIL) Winston Brassington, who accompanied Minister Singh at the news conference,  addressed the issue of the Guyana Stores transaction. He noted that while the deal is over a decade old, there is still the issue of an outstanding sum of $400M to be addressed. He explained that, of the US$6M which was the transaction price, US$4M was paid with the remainder to be paid within two years of the transaction. An attempt to amicably resolve the issue failed and there was no option but to begin litigation. Brassington however, noted that this was only one of three legal actions against Guyana Stores;  the other two includes recovering $100M for an outstanding balance on a Promissory Note and the recovery of properties occupied by Guyana Stores which were supposed to be either bought or relinquished. Some of the properties are prime real estate. Brassington stated that some of the transactions in the report deal with persons who are subjects of controversy in the eyes of the opposition. He noted that each transaction of privatisation goes through the Privatisation Board then to Cabinet, and in the process is reviewed by representatives of the labour, consumer and private sector organisations. This process has served well he observed. NICIL and its executing arm, the Privatisation Unit is an important state institution, responsible for the sale of State assets, as well as investments, on behalf of the State. It was a creature of the former PNC/R regime, created to perform the very functions alluded to, a fact conveniently forgotten by the many critics and naysayers of PPP/C administration. (Additional info provided by GINA)