| – Draft legislation to be strengthened by UK expert By Kiana Wilburg Head of the State Asset Recovery Unit, Dr. Clive ThomasThe coalition Government is making moves to entrust legal powers to Guyana’s State Asset Recovery Unit. It is currently preparing a “robust piece of legislation” that promises more than moral suasion with respect to stamping out corruption and prosecuting those who dared to steal the assets of the state.Dr. Clive Thomas, who is the head of the recovery unit, explained that the draft legislation is currently in the chambers of the Ministry of Legal Affairs. It is expected to be perused and strengthened by a specialist from the United Kingdom before taken to the National Assembly for passage.Once it receives the blessings of the House and the assent of President David Granger, Dr. Thomas said that the entity will be renamed the State Asset Recovery Agency and it will be granted with more powers.As for the process of strengthening the draft legislation, the economist said that the Asset Recovery Unit is awaiting the presence of Mr. Brian Horne who he said is an exceptional advisor on asset recovery.Dr. Thomas asserted that Mr. Horne, who is a Guyanese by birth,David Njoku Jersey, has spent most of his life in the United Kingdom. He has worked in more than 22 countries in the field of the recovery of state assets and the successful prosecution of the defaulters.Already, a number of cases have been undertaken by the State Assets Recovery Unit.Dr. Thomas reminded that two such cases include the Pradoville scandal and the misappropriation of state assets by former GuySuCo CEO,Cheap NHL Jerseys Online, Dr. Rajendra Singh.The Ministry of Housing had called on the Recovery Unit to investigate the ‘Pradoville Two’ deal as it speaks of abuse of state resources by the previous administration.The matter is also being examined under forensic audits being carried out at both the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) and the National Industrial Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL).Minister within the Ministry of Communities, Keith Scott, had disclosed that the area situated at Parcel 172 Plantation Sparendaam and Parcel 237 Plantation Goedverwagting, known by citizens as Pradoville 2 was “mutated” and sold, subject to a Cabinet decision.While he did not say when, from indications, it was done under last Bharrat Jagdeo administration. Jagdeo’s last term in office ended in 2011.The state-owned NICIL/Privatisation Unit was authorized to do all acts necessary to ensure the vesting of the new development project in the CH&PA, the body which is tasked with overseeing housing developments in Guyana.NICIL/Privatisation Unit was headed by Winston Brassington, an executive who oversaw a number of contentious multi-billion-dollar public infrastructure deals.According to Scott, the allocation of parcels of land to several former ministers, senior Government officials and friends close to the PPP administration, and the method to determine the prices paid,Cheap Jerseys China, were not assessed by the CH&PA.He said that CH&PA seemed not to have been in the loop. The infrastructural works were contracted to Atlantic Construction by NICIL/Privatisation Unit.NICIL reportedly also spent tens of millions of dollars to build roads, drainage and culverts, and to lay pipelines and in some cases, underground power cables. The developed house lots, complete with infrastructure, were then sold to Jagdeo,Cheap Jerseys For Sale, several ministers and Government officials and friends.There is no evidence that the house lots sale was advertised or what procedures were used in the allocations of the parcels of the ocean-front properties.Jagdeo himself, according to details of allocations, received two parcels equivalent to two acres. On it, he built an imposing mansion, complete with pool and overlooking the seawall and the Atlantic Ocean.He paid a total of $9.8M. He had owned a property along the Ogle Airport Road in the community that was known as ‘Pradoville One’. However, he reportedly sold that property to Trinidadian advertising executive, Ernie Ross.In effect, Jagdeo paid three times less than what ordinary citizens in the Diamond and Grove Housing Schemes, East Bank Demerara, would have been required to fork out.Jagdeo’s payment for the Pradoville Two parcels translated to $5M per acre which works out at $114 per square foot; the ordinary man pays $317 per square foot for his plot.The sale of the Pradoville Two house lots for such a low price would contrast starkly with what remigrants had to pay under the Government’s scheme for returning to Guyana. Remigrants paid more than ten times the price Jagdeo paid for the same size house lot. They paid $1,111 per square foot.Other beneficiaries included Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP),Teemu Selanne Ducks Throwback Jersey, Shalimar Ali-Hack; former Head of the Private Sector Commission (PSC), Ramesh Dookhoo; former Ministers Clement Rohee, Priya Manickchand, Robert Persaud and even former Cabinet Secretary, Dr. Roger Luncheon.The Asset Recovery Unit is also investigating some of the infractions committed by Dr. Rajendra Singh when he served as Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo).Dr. Thomas had said that a request was made for more details for some of the transactions and decisions by Dr. Singh as they involved the misappropriation of State assets.The Assets Recovery Unit will be looking into the sale of 2.6792 acres of land at Plantation Good Hope, East Coast Demerara to one Kelvin Gobin. This sale was authorized by Dr. Singh.Dr. Singh also entered into management agreements with Global Casetech and Global Cane Sugar services out of India for the management services on a number of estates at unreasonably high cost, and without approval of the Board of Directors.Documents also show that the former GuySuCo Chief Executive Officer persisted with a commercial bio fertilizer despite advice to the contrary from the corporation’s research and technical personnel.Single sourced procurements were done for the supply of bio fertilizers from Kay Bovet Engineering Ltd. of India in the sum of US$76,Wholesale Authentic Jerseys,680 in June 2014 and Global Cane Sugar Services Pvt. Ltd of India in the sum of US$68,580 in February 2015. Despite being cautioned numerous times regarding the adaptation of a practice that has not been used outside of India, the former CEO persisted with commercial application rather than a trial as advised.Dr. Singh also made decisions that resulted in millions of dollars being lost by GuySuCo.The said documents reveal that Singh had responsibility for finance and marketing for the company and entered into a one year agreement with Tate and Lyle in 2013 when the company could have entered into one for three years while locking in at a higher sugar price for 2014 and 2015.This was the first time in the history of the Long Term Agreement (LTA) with Tate and Lyle that a one-year agreement was entered into. The failure to enter into a three-year agreement resulted in a conservatively estimated loss of US$60M in revenue for the corporation for the years 2014 and 2015.During his time as CEO, he also committed 38,000 tonnes of sugar to Futures Market without locking in a price it was US$0.16 cents per pound. The current price is now US$0.11 cents per pound and this decline resulted in a loss of revenue in the sum of US$4.2M for GuySuCo. |
