05 March, 2007

NICA 12

NICA 12.

We have spent the past two weeks looking at the 2003 Thomas Report into the performance of the Board of Directors of the National Investment Company of Anguilla Ltd. What is of concern is the suspicion that rises in us that nothing has changed with the present Board of Directors. We worry about a number of matters.


The Board may not be meeting on a regular basis.




Proper record-keeping might not have become the norm.




We have to hope that the present Chairman, Calvert Carty, has learned from the mistakes made by Kennedy Hodge and George Kentish and is not handling all the company’s affairs personally.




We have to hope that he is not acting unilaterally.




We hope that he holds proper meetings with his co-directors.




The Board must sign off on all major decisions.




He must ensure that all decisions of the Board are minuted, and the minutes carefully preserved.




We have reason to worry. Important company activities are being missed.


The lease with Anguilla Rums has long run out. It has never been renewed.






The book store has closed shop without a whisper of explanation.






The office is shut with no explanation published in the press.






The company failed to file its annual returns in the Registry of Companies.






It was again struck off the Register in January 2007. No one in the company has told us if the company has been restored to the Register.






No audited accounts have yet been presented to the shareholders.






The Annual General Meeting is long overdue and has not been called. It would be an outrage to call an AGM now without presenting the missing Audits.






Is the company still stuck in the amateurism and unprofessionalism that were criticised by Mr Thomas? Are the same mistakes being made?

The question must be asked, is it not time to wind up this company? Should not a liquidator sell its assets at the best available price? Should the liquidator not then pay any bills and distribute the net proceeds to the shareholders? Can we agree that it is time to bring NICA’s misery to an end?



5 comments:

  1. Except for Kennedy, who suggested he might sue you for libel, all of them react to your excellent reports the same way government reacts to criticism: "Ignore the people; Anguillians have a short memory. Next week they'll have something new to complain about, and today's problem will be forgotten." It is arrogant and insulting.

    Those responsible must be held responsible. If we allow them to profit from their wrongdoing, we have no right to complain about corruption in government, or the mibehaviour of our young men.

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  2. Mr. Carty is of similar stewed. Your critical analysis reporting may have been intervention dejavu. The fact remained that by their history, greed and lack of qualification to meet the required portfolio, similar results is inevitable. Have you ever wondered or investigated the lease for the Wallblake Airport restaurant has elapsed unnoticed?

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  3. Just to think about it idmitch... what’s the situation about that lease? Why should one person or company obtain such a tenure-ship for so long, unchallenged and not open to the public? Free corruption to become corruption-free Anguilla… it’s so mesmerising!

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  4. I read with consternation the disastrous management of NICA. I would like to help mobilize the investors and hold these people accountable for our money. It is rather shameful that Kenedy Hodge used NICA's money for the advancement of his own company and could not give me back a thousand dollars to repay someone. I need that thousand dollars and I need Kenedy to repay me because I was constantly asking him about it. At one time he told me I could only get it if someone bought the shares, and now to hear that he can waste so much to compete with C&W, because that is what he was doing when he was setting up his own company. The guys who worked in and managed NICA have done Anguillians an injustice and they should be held accountable for it.

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  5. Poor Kennedy is always broke, but when he needed funds to buy out his former partner in Weblinks, I understand he was able to somehow come up with US$275,000 in cash.

    Someone needs to call a meeting to discuss continuing the good work that Bob Rogers started. It doesn't have to be a formal shareholders meeting, just an informal meeting of interested parties. A lawyer should be present to explain what the reasonable options are.

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