Former PM, Govt Ministers, officials questioned in controversial NICIL probe

…express fear of being under police surveillance

Former government officials and other new Members of Parliament of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Opposition have become targets of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) as the controversial investigation into the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) continues.

Former Prime Minister Samuel Hinds and parliamentarians Gail Teixeira, Irfaan Ali and Nigel Dharamlall are all reportedly under police surveillance and were recently called in to be interrogated on matters related to the NICIL forensic audit report that was prepared by former Auditor General Anand Goolsarran.

Only recently, PPP Member of Parliament Charles Ramson Jr and his family were the targets of a covert operation into NICIL, which eventually resulted in the death of three persons, including two civilians.

During the high-speed chase that ensued in the operation, Ramson’s wife Alana Seebarran said she was terrified and scared for her life.

Therefore, when the PPP members were summoned to be interrogated, it was cause for much concern.

Interrogations

This newspaper understands that during the interrogations questions posed were all about procedural matters.

Some of the questions included matters about the attendance at NICIL’s Annual General Meetings (AGMs), whether the minutes were written, issues arising from the meeting, among other bureaucratic matters.

Hinds was questioned on January 12 and was accompanied by Attorney Anil Nandlall.

Nandlall during an interview with Guyana Times International explained that this entire process seems to be a “fishing exercise” to unearth evidence to support the conclusions of corruption mentioned in the NICIL Audit Report.

Teixeira and Dharamlall were interrogated on January 11 and were accompanied by Attorney Bibi Shaddick and Glen Hanoman respectively.

During a news conference on Wednesday, Teixeira related that SOCU ranks had showed up at her home and started to ask a series of questions in relation to NICIL.

She said they then informed her that she will be called in for further questioning. Teixeira too described the operation as a “fishing expedition” that is being used capriciously to target and embarrass PPP-aligned officials.

Teixeira also raised concerns about the usage of SOCU to investigate matters in relation to NICIL, given the fact that the body’s remit is governed by the AML/CFT Act 2015 to deal with money laundering and related issues.

She also expressed concerns that the parliamentarians were interrogated by Criminal Investigations Department (CID) ranks and not SOCU’s.

Dharamlall, when contacted by this newspaper for a comment, expressed concerns that the forensic auditor Anand Goolsarran was sitting in one of the office’s at SOCU’s Headquarters at the time he was being interrogated. He noted that Goolsarran’s presence there was “unbecoming”.

He too related that he was informed that he will be called in for further questioning on various aspects of the forensic audit report as the probe deepens.

Ali, former acting Tourism Minister and Housing Minister, was interrogated on January 6. Contacted for a comment on the matter, Ali said he was concerned and to some extent shocked that SOCU would base questions on AGMs that were held more than 10 years ago.

Tarnishing images

Contacted for a comment on this development, a senior PPP official said the entire exercise seems to be done with the sole intent of tarnishing images in an effort to win support for the upcoming Local Government Elections (LGE).

The official explained that, “Because we are approaching LGE, the government can’t now go to their base like they did before and make allegations against PPP about them being corrupt because people would say, ‘well if they are corrupt, why aren’t you doing something about it’.”

Therefore the official posited, this campaign by the government to destroy the reputations of the PPP-aligned officials is all a part of an elections gimmick.

“So they might lay a few spurious charges, not with the hope that they will secure prosecutions but to satisfy their base and use it as a tool in the upcoming campaign season,” the official added.

Concerns

Several organisations have expressed concerns about SOCU’s mandate and legality to engage in such operations where civilians’ privacy are being invaded by military personnel and other Joint Forces officers through random surveillance and stakeouts.

The Guyana Bar Association (GBA) in a statement had questioned the entire nature of the operation and investigation into NICIL including its legality to work in collaboration with the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) on a civilian operation and had called on the government and other relevant authorities to break their silence on the matter and address the nation on the situation which has sparked much public disquiet.

Other organisations including the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA), Red Thread, the Private Sector Commission (PSC) and the Central Corentyne Chamber of Commerce (CCCC), among others, weighed in on the situation, noting that the haphazard stakeouts on civilians are worrying.

The GPF recently received the NICIL Audit Report from government and has since begun investigations to determine if any criminality was involved in the management and operations of the controversial state holding company.