Making life bearable for Guyanese is government’s central focus– Jagdeo

FIGHTING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC, creating jobs, and accelerating the economy are
central tenets of the government’s five-year national development plan, Vice President Dr.
Bharrat Jagdeo said.
Jagdeo made the disclosure responding to media queries about investigation into alleged
illegalities in land deals under Mr. Colvin Heath-London, the then Chief Executive Officer
(CEO) of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Ltd (NICIL), a government
holding company during the 2015 – 2020 tenure of the David Granger APNU+AFC coalition.
“We have taken a different approach. We are not going to allow the investigation to become the
central focus of this government. Our central focus is on addressing the pandemic, getting jobs
going, returning Guyana to economic dynamism. However, we must pursue the illegalities
committed and so we did not send the names of a few individuals to SOCU (Special Organised
Crime Unit) to say go after these individuals we allowed the investigations to proceed,” Dr.
Jagdeo said.
I have read a report about a Timothy Fisher, who is a central figure from what I gather in a lot of
the transactions at NICIL…from all that we are hearing about corruption that took place at
NICIL,” the VP said.
Jagdeo said more reports and evidence of corrupt dealings involving Fisher and former NICIL
officials are surfacing and the law will take its course irrespective of who is involved.
The VP pointed to malpractices of land sales at Wales, Ogle, and Enmore and other places under
Granger’s watch.
“Up to yesterday (Monday) we learnt that land was being sold at Earle’s Court and at a scheme
at Success on the East Coast …as part of NICIL’s undertaking. So, on a daily basis it is
proceeding, so trust me it is not going to disappear it is just that we are focusing a little bit more
on other issues at this moment of time,” Jagdeo explained.
Addressing reports of fraudulent activities at the Lands and Survey department, the Vice
President said that investigation into several leases and sale of lands are also engaging the

attention of the relevant authorities. He asked for patience, stressing that investigations are still
underway to ensure that the guilty face the consequences for their actions.
He also said that the former President, David Granger had never authorised the head of Lands
and Survey to sell any lands and they have found evidence of where several parcels of land
belonging to the state were secretly sold.
“We are seeing where lands were sold inconsistent with the order that President Granger gave to
the head of Lands and Survey. He never gave him permission to sell anything, yet lands were
sold …and we will get around to those. There was a lot of private action to retain some private
assets that were given away too, so just bear with us a little bit longer, it’s going to happen. We
want to do it properly, without any kind of witch-hunting,” the VP Jagdeo said.
“You know APNU claims every time that there is corruption (exposed) that there is witch-
hunting (by this government)…so there are a lot of things that we are coming around to but we
don’t want to make that the top priority of the government,” Dr. Jagdeo assured.