The fact that the Special Organised Crime Unit opted to harass and embarrass former Finance Minister Winston Jordan has now become a popular talking point in some quarters. The most recent person to comment on the issue is Geotechnical Engineer, Charles Ceres.
When Attorney General Anil Nandlall directed his attention to one of the largest business conglomerates in the country, BK International, he was merely continuing an attack that began soon after the government came to office in August 2020.
The first move was to cancel contracts that had been awarded to BK International for the construction of schools. There also seemed to be a studied decision not to pay the company for completed works.
Now there is a drive to repossess a piece of waterfront property that was secured by BK International following a public tender as far back as 2006.
On Monday, December 13, 2021, edition of Kaieteur News, Geotechnical Engineer, Ceres, however, concluded that the police were correct to charge former Finance Minister Winston Jordan. His claim was that Jordan played a role in the “gifting of valuable state assets on the Demerara River waterfront to BK International.”
In the article, Ceres said that Opposition Leader Joseph Harmon, former Attorney General Basil Williams, and former President David Granger stood indicted in the matter.
Without explaining how Jordan could be arrested for being complicit, Ceres said that the people he named were part of the Cabinet which allowed the gifting of valuable state assets.”
Three companies submitted bids–Tony Reid, Rizwan Khan, and BK International.
Reid submitted the highest bid and won the tender but failed to provide the funds when called upon to complete the deal.
Rizwan Khan had the second-highest bid but he also failed to complete the transaction. The property then fell to BK Marines, a subsidiary of BK International. The asking price was $110 million.
From 2006, BK International began occupying the property initially as a lease for which the company was required to pay a rental of $10 million annually. This was stated in a resolution that was signed on December 4, 2006.
A meeting of the board of directors of the National Industrial, Commercial and Investments Limited, a company vested with the ability to dispose of Government assets, this decision was confirmed. One Board Member, Lincoln Lewis, said that among those present when the decision was taken were Manzoor Nadir, David Yankhana, and NICIL Executive Director Winston Brassington.
He said that Brassington recommended that the property would be best given to a company registered as Phagoo Store in Regent Street. Lewis told the meeting that the company had no track record so he objected.
“I objected because I looked at the proposal of that company, BK International, and others and found BK’s proposal to be superior, satisfying the many requirements demanded by the PPPC Government.”
“The CAGI (Consultative Association of Guyanese Industries) and the Consumer representative supported my justification for BK to be given the property. The entire Board appointed by the PPPC Government agreed we will recommend to Cabinet that the property will go to BK.”
By way of letter dated December 1, 2009, Brassington wrote to Brian Tiwarie to state that “permission has been granted for you to purchase the property in the name of BK Marine.”
This was followed by a letter dated October 25, 2011, and signed by then Finance Minister Ashni Singh, stating that “NICIL will be willing to transfer, via sale price of $110 million-plus VAT the leased property…”
In a glaring disregard for the principle of justice, Ceres ignores the fact that the matter is before the court. He has concluded that there was wrongdoing in the transfer of the property. He ignored that the transfer actually occurred long before Jordan came to political office. It was in fact started by the PPP and executed by NICIL.
Ceres talks about valuable state assets without even considering that the asking for the price was $110 Million plus the value-added tax. Then he talks about a Cabinet decision, something that is being ignored in the mad rush to pursue the acquisition of the waterfront property.
If one is to accept Ceres’s chronology, he is really implicating two Cabinets for the decision to award the property to BK Marines, a company on BK International.
Ceres should now identify and call for the prosecution of people in the previous Cabinet.
