Glenn Lall admits to Kaieteur News publishing misinformation

- Ramjattan and Nagamootoo a no-show at NICIL debate

- Adam Harris apologises to Finance Minister

NCN’s panel discussion on NICIL: From left to right: Publisher of the Kaieteur News Glenn Lall, Chartered Accountant Christopher Ram, Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon, Chief Executive Officer of NICIL Winston Brassington, and Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh

LAST Tuesday evening Guyanese at home and abroad were transfixed to their television sets, or through live online streaming, as Kaieteur News publisher Glenn Lall and accountant Christopher Ram tried to match their brains with that of heavyweights; Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh; Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon; and head of NICIL Winston Brassington. After months of grandstanding AFC parliamentarian, Moses Nagamootoo and Khemraj Ramjattan, slinked away without a whimper. Both of them were invited to participate in the debate but were a complete no show.

Almost daily the headlines of Kaieteur News scream of one instance of corruption by government entities and personnel after another, and when the real facts are revealed, most often, neither the publisher nor the editor has the grace to correct the inaccuracies, or even if they do, the retraction is so insignificant and infinitesimal that it is rarely noticed.

But their latest victim, Winston Brassington, was not prepared to allow his good name to be besmirched, with no justification whatsoever, without challenging the perpetrators on the allegations impugning his character and the entity under his management. He called out the accusers to a public debate on national television so that the nation could get the opportunity to judge for themselves, and to reveal the truth regarding the level of transparency and accountability of the operations of NICIL.

In particular, the publication by the KN newspaper that NICIL has Gy$50B which should be paid into the Consolidated Fund was denied by the company and Lall was asked whether he had any way to substantiate what his paper published. Admitting the inaccuracy, he stated that the information came from the ‘mouth of the politicians’ and this was supported by Harris who said that the information was pulled out of a weekly column done for the Kaieteur News by the AFC. Harris claimed that the AFC explained to him that the information was taken from NICIL’s annual reports up to 2003.

Some persons have questioned the reasons for Kaieteur News publisher Glenn Lall subjecting himself to public scrutiny of his intellectual challenges. Only recently he had a similar encounter with the ANSA McAL bigwigs, when he ‘poped’ the company’s press conference and tried to bluff his way past his gaffe in publishing damning inaccuracies about that entrepreneurial giant.

During the ‘debate’, allegation after allegation, accusation after accusation, contention after contention from Lall and Ram were debunked by the government panelists, leaving the opposition protagonists flapping for responses and loudly whispering together, even as credible responses were being proffered by the government team.

Brassington was forced to accuse the opposition and section of the private media, especially KN of engaging in ‘jumbie arithmetic’ and ‘pulling figures from thin air’, as the trio were relentlessly exposed of being manufacturers of allegations.

The PPP/C administration had challenged the collective opposition to debate any issue in the public arena and to vent any misconceptions about governance and related matters. This became a pressing need after the consistently negative press has been stymieing national development by scaring away potential investors in the country, because it is a fact that investors would not want to invest their monies in an unstable political environment, as Brassington pointed out when he revealed that no less than four investors backed away from the Marriott deal as a direct result of the negative press by opposition parties and media houses.

The opposition have been engaged in an ongoing campaign against NICIL, accusing it of being involved in corrupt practices, but have not backed up this with any evidence whatsoever. The finance minister pointed out that NICIL has been subjected to considerable “estimation, misinformation, misrepresentation and misinterpretation” of recent weeks, which despite repudiation by Brassington as head of the entity, and other state officials, with explanations of facts by way of letters to the press, media interviews and at various fora, the collective opposition continued to peddle their ‘outrageous accusations.’

Dr. Singh is adamant that NICIL has, over the years, performed an “extremely important role” and in more recent times, has been pivotal in catalyzing important investments in and for Guyana, the proposed Marriott Hotel being a case in point.

The company was incorporated in 1990 by the PNC government and served as a holding company for government’s equity investments in other companies. In 2002, under PPP/C administration, a Management Co-operation Agreement was signed appointing the Privatisation Unit (PU) as exclusive manager of NICIL, for the collecting and accounting of privatisation proceeds, rents, dividends and other income of the combined entity to be done in the name of NICIL.

Ram contended that he had requested a copy of the Management Co-operation Agreement, along with NICIL accounts for 2006 to 2011. He referred to this as tardiness in supplying financial information. However, the government’s response was that that all public documentation could be found in the public arena under various regulatory bodies.

Both Lall and Ram admitted that most times the premise of their allegations is not based on actual information, which elicited a biting final comment from Dr. Luncheon, who stated that, while using NICIL as an example, “the way the issue is treated in the media really epitomizes some of the weaknesses and some of the more objectionable practices. Our two colleagues here (referring to Glenn Lall and Christopher Ram) have made the point incessantly tonight that I suspect that they will continue making…’we don’t have information, the government is not forthcoming’…and I would want to make the same point that in the context of this lack of information and lack of forthrightness by this administration on what basis is this profusion of info about; … it is just poured out and anybody who reads cannot help but believe that these journalists/critics are privy to information, sound information that they are offering to the public and yet they come tonight and sit in front of the public and confront us with the situation – ‘we are speculating, we are forced to speculate’.”

Dr. Luncheon scathingly said, “It seems to me and this is something that must be repudiated, that the press is actually saying that we don’t have information so we are going to write anything we feel like writing to force the administration to come clean … I want to know whether if this is indeed an approach, whether if this indeed motivates Glenn Lall in his criticism of government policy and government operations and I feel if this is so, it is utterly reprehensible and needs to be confronted.”

As the discussion came to an end, Ram chose to then ask about an independent audit of NICIL.

Minister Singh expressed disappointment that Ram would raise such an issue at the end of the programme, but stated that the Auditor General remains the auditor of NICIL in accordance with the laws of Guyana.

Dr. Singh added that there are a number of Parliamentary mechanisms to allow for additional scrutiny, one of which is the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) which is chaired by a front bench opposition member. This provides extremely good oversight of the work of the Auditor General’s office. He noted that the PAC is the ultimate accountability mechanism, it can summon accounting officers, public officials, ask questions and receive answers. He also pointed to the Economic Services Committee which serves the same purpose.

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