commissioners dealt with Ulric Cameron

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…commissioners see it as “taking from Peter to give to Peter”By Abena RockcliffeExecutive Director of the National Industrial and Commercial Investment Limited (NICIL) Winston Brassington yesterday appeared before members of the Linden Commission of Inquiry (COI) seeking compensation to the tune of over $204M for the destruction of what was described as an “old beat-up building.”Yesterday’s resumption of the COI into the July 18 shooting of protesters at Linden and the events that followed was focused on hearings of victims affected so that the commission may or may not recommend compensation by the Government of Guyana.The members of the Commission of the Inquiry are Justice Lensley Wolfe O.J., Mr. K.D. Knight S.C, Ms. Dana Seetahal S.C. along with Guyana’s former Court of Appeal Judge, Claudette Singh, CCH, and Justice Cecil Kennard, CCH, a former Chancellor of the Judiciary of Guyana.During the afternoon session, commissioners dealt with Ulric Cameron, Lindener and victim of the shooting, and Winston Brassington who was there representing NICIL’s building which was destroyed.Brassington told the Commission that NICIL is seeking compensation of $204.7M to replace the building that housed the Linden’s arm of NICIL and several other businesses.He provided a breakdown of how he arrived of 204.7M as he attached cost to every section of the building, such as the drawing room and washrooms.However,  Attorney at Law representing Lindeners, Basil Williams, told the commission that he fails to understand why Brassington is requesting so much for “one of the oldest buildings in the world.”Williams said that the building stood since the colonial time and was “merely fire wood.”While the Commissioners had a different issue with Brassington’s request, members unanimously failed to understand why a government-owned company would seek reimbursement from the said government.“It is like taking from Peter to give Peter – that is absurd,” said Commissioner K.D Knights.Knights, from the outset, told Brassington that he sees no point in embarking on an exercise that will be futile based on the fact that it makes no sense to let the government pay the government.However, Brassington sought to explain that NICIL is not government-owned.  He said that the government is a shareholder.Brassington told the Commissioners that he worked “long enough” in the corporate world to know that shareholders don’t own a company.Similarly, he said, the government has significant shares in NICIL but does not own it.  Brassington told the Commission that NICIL’s staffers are paid “only” from the revenue of the company and not from the consolidated fund.Further, he noted that NICIL expends monies from the consolidated fund on a special appropriation that must be approved by the National Assembly.Brassington, upon a request for clarification, told the Commission that NICIL is not constituted by an Act of parliament but it is state-owned.However, Williams was adamant when he told the Commission that NICIL is fully controlled by the Government of Guyana.He said that NICIL has been entrusted with many of Government properties and land. “I am saying and I know this for sure that company holds the assets of government.So once again, the question was asked, “Why would the government want to pay itself?”With no response there, Knights asked who else would pay this money if not the government.  At this point the once fluent Brassington started to stutter. “I, I, I don’t know that will have to be determined.”He was asked to make available to the Commission of Inquiry a copy of the agreement made between NICIL and the Government.