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…Heath-London produces additional evidence
Former head of the Special Purpose Unit (SPU) Colvin Heath-London, on Monday, provided additional evidence to prove that the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) was fully aware of sub-letting agreements.
Heath-London was accused of presenting forged documents to the public by the new management of NICIL.
After Heath-London was called in for questioning on November 20, 2020 and immediately arrested, his Counsel provided investigating ranks with electronic copies of NICIL’s Board minutes and records for January 15, 2018, prior to the no-confidence motion, which showed that NICIL’s former Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Horace James, in conjunction with the Board, had decided that lease transactions should be amended to facilitate sub-letting to create a more competitive platform.
It was also decided that Industrial Parks Lease Transactions be formulated immediately for the Peter’s Hall area and areas such as Berbice and Demerara were also slated as possible industrial park developments sites to be commissioned.
“This unsigned document has been carefully examined by NICIL and it has been concluded that is it neither a document emanating from NICIL nor is it part of the minutes of any Board Meeting of NICIL. NICIL’s Board Meetings are recorded and minuted by the Company Secretary in a particular style and format and all such minutes and records are kept by the Company Secretary. The document currently in circulation is absolutely inconsistent with and does not meet the standardized format of NICIL Board Meeting minutes or any NICIL document,” NICIL said while calling on the Guyana Police Force (GPF) to investigate the document as an alleged forgery.
However, Heath-London provided the media with photographs of invoices issued by NICIL to sub-lessees for rent which suggests that the entity was well aware of the transactions and acted in keeping with decisions made in 2018.
The information provided included an invoice issued by NICIL for rent addressed to Jianfen Yu (sub-lessee) for the rental of plots A 17, A 18 and A 19 for 2020. It also included the receipt issued by NICIL to Jianfen Yu for the payment of the rental by the Sub-lessee for the aforementioned properties.
Both documents bear the logo of NICIL as well as the invoice which was prepared and signed by Account Receivable Clerk, Wenston Mingo and reviewed, checked and signed by Finance Controller, Geary Reid.
After the changeover of Government, Radha Krishna Sharma was appointed the new CEO of NICIL and Heath-London’s contract as NICIL’s Head of the Special Purpose Unit (SPU) was terminated and therefore his role as CEO (ag).
Not long after, Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall announced that he sought independent legal advice and was advised that former Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan and Heath-London “have acted recklessly, in bad faith with full knowledge of the flagrant illegalities, which have resulted in millions of dollars of losses to the State.”
Nandlall said too that civil proceedings would begin to recover the said parcels of land.
Both Heath-London and Jordan have maintained their innocence regarding the accusations made.
