‘I’m just one of those being victimised’

…Heath-London says after fired by government

The Government of Guyana has terminated the service of head the Special Purpose Unit (the SPU) for the privatization and divestment of identified assets of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) and former Chief Executive Officer (ag) of National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (“NICIL”), Colvin Heath-London.

A letter of Termination of Employment issued on Friday by Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, said that Heath-London’s termination was with immediate effect and is as a result of “illegalities and serious failures” in the performance of this duties.
Heath-London has been asked to immediately surrender all Government and NICIL property in his possession, including his company vehicle and the keys to the premises he currently occupies.

Contacted by the Village Voice Guyana subsequently, Heath-London said that his termination did not come as a surprise and forms a part of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic’s (PPP/Cs) path of political victimization.

“I am just one of those who are being victimized,” he said while noting that he was yet to receive his letter of termination.
“Everybody knows that position is not warranted. You can speak to people on both sides of the divide, you can speak to Minister Jordan, you can speak to Joe Harmon, even people in the PPP camp, that’s not warranted…I am just one of those who are being victimized,” he said.
Asked whether he plans to seek legal redress in light of his position on the matter, Heath-London said that he would make a decision on such after he has perused the letter and the justifications outlined therein by the AG.

Heath-London was contracted from February 18, 2018 to perform various functions including duties related to the Special Purpose Unit (SPU) which is responsible for the privatization and divestment of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo).

In the letter, the AG told Heath-London that a review of his performance has revealed “illegalities and serious failures in the performance of your duties, all of which were approved or performed by you, or at your request under your ostensible authority, which have had a detrimental effect to the Government’s, NICIL and the State’s best interest.”

Some of the failures Nandlall mentioned were the issuance of various leases of NICIL properties located in Peter’s Hall, East Bank of Demerara (ECD) without public tender, valuations, Board approval, Cabinet approval, review by approved NICIL counsel and without ensuring that the issued leases contained the standard and customary provisions.

He cited, too, the issuance of approximately 14 agreements of sale and leases for NICIL lands located at Ogle and the subsequent vesting of 7 tracts of lands without ensuring that full payment was received and without ensuring that the vesting orders issued were drafted by approved NICIL counsel or contained customary language.

The AG also stated that Heath-London allowed for the procuring of the executing and gazetting of aforementioned vesting orders without first ensuring that payments were made in accordance with the terms of the various agreements executed by the parties.

Added to this, he said that Heath-London failed to facilitate and procure the auditing of SPUs accounts by the Auditor General for several years and failed to facilitate and procure NICIL account reconciliations in order to allow the Auditor General to audit NICIL’s accounts from 2014 to 2019.
“Your failure in the performance of your duties and referenced transgressions constitute serious misconduct and dereliction of duty generally, not only breaching applicable laws and violating policies established by the Government and NICIL but causing NICIL and the Government to lose billions of dollars,” Nandlall stated.

He noted that Heath-London’s actions amount to a breach of the fiduciary duties and duty of care owed by him to NICIL based on the Companies Act 1991.