Ashni Singh back as Finance Minister
Dr Ashni Singh is once again a minister of government. The former Minister of Finance was yesterday sworn in as a senior minister in the Office of the President ( OP) with responsibility for Finance.
According to President Irfaan Ali, Singh will be part of a team to oversee the transformative agenda of Government. This agenda includes projects, programmes and policies to stimulate growth, expand the country’s economic base and strengthen existing sectors.
“Dr Singh will have the responsibility for finance and will ensure that we have the full complement of skills that will advance the agenda of the Government,” Ali said during an emergency press briefing at OP yesterday.
The President went on to state that Guyana’s transformation requires a multifaceted team.
“I believe in every aspect of Government, at the level of Cabinet and Permanent Secretaries we have been able to match youth, experience and dynamism in a very special way to ensure that we build capacity that is needed to manage the fortunes of the future and create an environment in which all of our people will be successful,” he stated.
Singh told reporters following the swearing in that “I’d like to thank President Ali, Vice President ( Bharrat) Jagdeo and Prime Minister ( Mark) Phillips for inviting me to rejoin the Cabinet. I have spent almost all of my life in public service in Guyana and so public service for me has been something that I have devoted all my professional energies and consider a great honour so I am greatly honoured and deeply humbled… the opportunity to serve in this capacity at this time is a huge privilege,” he said.
Acknowledging the impact COVID-19 has had on the economy, Singh said that Guyana Government has been swift in crafting responsive policies but a lot of work needs to be done.
“I’m under no illusion as to the magnitude of challenges before us in terms of economic policymaking, implementation and management… I’m eagerly looking forward to getting back into the business of government,” he stressed.
Technocrat
He will sit as a technocrat minister in the National Assembly.
Singh previously served as Minister of Finance within the Donald Ramotar government before which he was Director of Budget in the Auditor General’s Office.
Most recently he has been appearing before the Court on charges of misconduct in public office, over the sale of three tracts of government land. His trial and that of former Chief Executive Officer of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) Winston Brassington had been delayed for two years due to High Court proceedings challenging their prosecution.
On May 8th, 2018 Singh and Brassington were jointly charged with three counts of misconduct in public office over the sale of three tracts of government land on the East Coast of Demerara, between December, 2008 and May, 2011.
In one instance, it is alleged that the property was sold below market value, while in the other two the deals went ahead without proper valuations of the land.
It is alleged that Singh and Brassington sold a tract of land, being 4.7 acres at Plantation Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara, which was the property of Guyana, for the sum of $ 150 million to Scady Business Corpora- tion, while knowing that the property was valued at $340 million by Rodrigues Architects Limited.
It is also alleged that by way of agreement of sale and purchase, they acted recklessly when they sold a tract of land, which was a portion of Plantation Liliendaal, Pattensen and Turkeyen, East Coast Demerara, being 103.88 acres, to National Hardware Guyana Limited for $598,659,398 (VAT exclusive), without having a valuation of the property from a competent valuation officer.
It was also alleged that they acted recklessly when they sold a 10-acre tract of land at Plantation Turkeyen, which was the property of Guyana, for the sum of $185,037,000 to Multicinemas Guyana Inc, without procuring a valuation of the said property from a competent valuation officer.
A fourth charge stemmed from the controversial sale of the former Sanata Textiles Complex to Queens Atlantic Investment Inc (QAII).
The charge alleged that Singh, performing the duties of Minister of Finance and Chairman of the NICIL, and Brassington, as CEO of NICIL, between October 26th, 2010 and December 20th, 2010 at Lot 126 Barrack Street, Kingston, Georgetown, by way of agreement of sale and purchase, acted recklessly when they sold the Sanata Textiles Complex with building and erections
thereon, being 18.1871 acres, to QAII for $ 697,864,800 plus VAT, knowing that the said property was valued at the sum of $ 1,042,403, 500 and was therefore sold at a price that was grossly undervalued, thereby creating a breach of their duties.
The men in turn challenged the legality and validity of charges. They have argued through attorney Anil Nandlall, that because the charges are bad, they should be entitled to a review.
Following their arraignment on the charges before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan, Singh and Brassington had moved to the High Court and were able to secure a stay of the Magistrate’s Court from further proceeding with the matters against them until the hearing and determination of their challenge to the validity of the charges.
Nandlall has argued that while general rule dictates that criminal charges be determined in criminal courts, his clients’ case was not an “ordinary” one and so they have come before the Chief Justice for the DPP’s decision to institute the charges to be reviewed.
Spending
Singh had also been at the centre of several matters in 2014 pertaining to the spending of $ 4.5b which had been cut from the budget by the then opposition APNU and the AFC which had then held a one- seat majority in Parliament.
On July 24, 2014, House Speaker Raphael Trotman ruled in favour of APNU MP Carl Greenidge’s motion to have Singh referred to the Privileges Committee of Parliament over the $4.5B spending.
In a statement, Trotman said that after considering all the details he found that “the issue of the spending by the Hon. Minister of Finance does raise sufficiently serious questions of privilege such that the privileges committee should enquire into. I therefore find that a prima facie case has been made out and the matter is referred to the Committee of Privileges.”
Trotman’s decision constituted the second time Singh had been referred to the Committee of Privileges in five months. In February of 2014 he was referred to the committee for matters surrounding his failure to comply with a parliamentary resolution that required him to provide reports on extra-budgetary agencies and to pay all monies being held by such agencies into the Consolidated Fund. The motion to refer Singh to the committee on that occasion was also moved by Greenidge.
In that instance Singh was accused of refusing to comply with “Resolution 15 that was passed by the House on the 27th June 2012, and which required the Hon Minister to lay a report in the National Assembly on all Extra-Budgetary agencies including the Guyana Development ( Lotto) fund and GGMC, and further, to pay all monies being held by these agencies into the Consolidated Fund.”
Greenidge’s motion, and the Speaker’s findings had to do with spending, by Singh of $4.55 billion after the money was cut from the 2014 budget. The amount spent included allocations for the then Government Information Agency (GINA) and state broadcaster NCN which were not approved by the opposition.
“Be it resolved that the National Assembly expresses its unreserved condemnation of the Honourable Minister of Finance and its disapproval of his flagrant disregard of its decisions. Be it further resolved that the matter be referred to the Privileges Committee in accordance with Standing Order 32 for a finding of this Honourable House with respect to the actions of the Honorable Minister of Finance and a determination as to the sanction that should be imposed on the Honourable Dr. Ashni Singh, Minister of Finance,” Greenidge’s motion had read.
In considering the facts Trotman found that “The Hon. Minister of Finance caused spending to be done that was outside of the sum approved by the Act of Parliament No. 10 of 1 2014.”