NICIL clarifies sale of lands

See below the full statement issued by National Industrial & Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) Special Purpose Unit:

NICIL notes with concern a misleading Facebook post “APNU+AFC engaged in large-scale corruption … as Winston Jordan signed off on the transferal of land …”

We wish to remind the public that NICIL through the SPU, sold lands that were vested to it by the Government of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.  NICIL received deposits for the lands commencing December 2019, however, the transactions remained incomplete since the vesting orders were not ‘Signed and Gazetted’ as required by law and this meant that the remaining sums could not be paid over by the investors.

Following GUYSUCO’s recent request to the Government for a bailout, NICIL was approached to assist the company. By now, the public must be aware that a $30 Billion bond backed by NICIL’s assets and guaranteed by the Government of Guyana was secured through NICIL to retrofit and revitalize GUYSUCO.  We wish to remind too, that from July 2018 to February 2020, NICIL has disbursed $9,720,759,568 to GUYSUCO to fund its Capital and Operational Expenditure.

It is also common knowledge that GUYSUCO and the bond holders were in the process of ironing out some matters so that further disbursements could be had. But NICIL, having recognized the urgency of the request, sought to complete the land transactions.  It therefore became necessary to regularize the Vesting Orders.

We wish to state clearly that the Minister of Finance, Hon. Winston Jordan had no involvement in the selection of the investors, is not a member of the NICIL Board nor is he involved in the day to day business of NICIL or the SPU. We reject completely the insinuations and aspersions contained in the post.

We hope that right thinking citizens will see that the Government and NICIL are committed to safeguarding the livelihood of the sugar workers and the industry.

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