Former Finance Minister, Winston Jordan is denying that he colluded with NICIL in vesting a property to BK Marine Inc.
The property in question is situated in North Cummingsburg Georgetown and is reported to have been valued at approximately $5B, according to the Attorney General.
The Government through the Attorney General Anil Nandlall recently initiated legal proceedings to repossess the prime waterfront property.
Former Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan; former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), Colvin Heath-London and NICIL are defendants to the matter.
The Attorney-General is contending that Jordan, in collusion and in conspiracy with NICIL, acted in a reckless and negligent manner in vesting the property, having full knowledge and being aware that BK Marine Inc. only paid 10% of the undervalued purchase price.
In his Statement of Claim, the Attorney-General explained that the Government of Guyana is and was at all time the owner of the North Cummingsburg, Georgetown property by virtue of Transport No. 530 of 1947, and in pursuit of privatization, the property was transferred to NICIL in accordance with the privatization process.
But in his Defence Mr. Jordan is claiming that there were no illegalities with the transaction, at least, not on his part.
“The Second named defendant (Winston Jordan) did not act in breach of any fiduciary duty or purported fiduciary duty, nor did the second named defendant act negligently when he signed the vesting orders in respect of the property.” Mr. Jordan said in court documents filed by his Attorney Roysdale Forde.
The Attorney noted that the institution of the legal action against former Finance Minister is indicative of political harassment and persecution of political rivals.
“The claimant is using the legal system to engage in a baseless, vile and unmeritorious political witch-hunt against the second named defendant and this is evidenced by his failure to institute legal proceedings in respect of persons or companies who acquired large plots of valuable land at highly undervalued prices”, the Court document further read.
In addition, Mr. Jordan is claiming that he was the Minister with responsibility for Public Corporations and was authorized under section 8 of the Public Corporation’s act to carry out the transaction.
Among other things, the act states that: “ The Minister may by order, transfer to a corporation or to any other person, or place under its or his control the whole or part of any undertaking or any other property of any corporation or any other person or any other body corporate owned by the state or by which the controlling interest is vested in the state or any agency on behalf of the state.”
The transaction to sell the property to BK International actually started under the PPP government when an agreement was reached.
Since getting back into power, the Government has launched a repossession campaign for state lands sold under the APNU+AFC government to businessmen. Those businessmen who appeared to have shared close ties with the former Government, appear to be the ones mostly targeted.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login