Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:10 AM
Oct 29, 2016 News
– Special prosecution teams to help prepare cases
– 2007 Cricket World Cup spending to also be investigated
Acting on the findings of two forensic audits, Government has ordered that the matters be handed over to the police for further investigations.
The two audits include the now infamous transfer and sale of a large plot of seaside land behind the Sparendaam police station, East Coast Demerara, which was reportedly sold below market price to former President Bharrat Jagdeo and a number of former Government ministers.
The other case has to do with the 2007 spending during Cricket World Cup.
Speaking yesterday at a post-Cabinet press briefing, Minister of State Joseph Harmon disclosed that the forensic audit reports of the two sets of transactions were presented to the Cabinet of Ministers on Tuesday by Minister Winston Jordan.
Harmon disclosed that Cabinet, after examining the reports, concluded that enough evidence existed of criminal culpabilities, and it would require further investigations.
Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams, has been given one week to submit names of the special prosecution teams.
Harmon was unsure whether the investigations will be conducted by the police or by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU), an arm of the Guyana Police Force.
With regards to the special prosecution teams, Harmon disclosed that it is likely international help may be sought in preparing the cases.
“We are going to have a wider sweep, and we are looking to bring persons who are capable of handling these matters…people who are trained at building a criminal case.”
The minister said that Guyana has been receiving offers of assistance to prosecute these cases, from both regional and international sources.
NOT MARKET PRICES
Questions about what spurred Cabinet’s decision to proceed further, Harmon said that it appears that the plots of land were transferred at prices that were not of market prices.
According to Harmon, “the valuation that was given was unusual for that time and for that location.”
He said that comparisons were made to similar plots of land on the East Coast of Demerara
“for the price at which it was transferred, and then compared that to the price at which the members of the previous administration also gifted themselves those portion of lands.”
The Pradoville Two land transactions had been embarrassing for consecutive PPP/C administrations under Jagdeo and then Donald Ramotar. Tens of millions of dollars were abused during the last term of Jagdeo, which ended in 2011, to build the special seaside community.
The transactions implicated a number of Government entities, including the Central Housing and Planning Authority, the National Communications Network (NCN) and the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL).
Prior to stepping down in November 2011, after he completed his constitutional two terms in office, Jagdeo and his administration in deciding to build a community for himself, ministers and friends, stumbled on a big problem. Sitting on the land was a huge transmitting tower belonging to the state-owned NCN.
A decision was taken to move the tower to Dairy Road, La Parfaite Harmonie, West Bank Demerara.
NICIL reportedly paid over $100M to take down the tower and build the new transmitting facility. It was a charge on NCN.
Significant sums from the state were spent also on the construction of roads, drainage network and other works at Pradoville Two. The developed house lots, complete with infrastructure, were then sold below market value to Jagdeo, several ministers and Government officials and friends.
There is no evidence that the house lots sale was advertised or what procedures were used in the allocations of the parcels of the ocean front properties.
There are also no details of whether the recipients were owners of properties at the time. If they were, under regulations, they would have been barred from buying the lands under policies of the Central Housing and Planning Authority.
With few plots of land available on the high-demand East Coast and East Bank of Demerara for allocations, the Pradoville Two scheme has been galling house lot applicants.
Reportedly, there are almost 25,000 applications pending on file, leaving the new Government scrambling to find lands for housing.
Remigrants reportedly paid ten times the price that Jagdeo paid, for their house lots. They paid $1,111 per square foot to Jagdeo’s $114 per square foot.
Jagdeo himself, according to details of allocations, received two parcels equivalent to two acres.
On it, he built an imposing mansion, complete with pool and overlooking the seawall and the Atlantic Ocean.
He paid a total of $9.8M. He had owned a property along the Ogle Airport Road in the community that was known as ‘Pradoville One’. However, he “sold” that property to Trinidadian advertising executive, Ernie Ross.
There is no confirmation whether the former President paid the Capital Gains tax on the profits he made on sale of the mansion or whether the 10-year timeframe had passed in which he could have sold the property.
In effect, Jagdeo paid three times less than what ordinary citizens in the Diamond and Grove Housing Schemes, East Bank Demerara, would have been required to fork out.
BENEFICIARIES
Other beneficiaries included Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Shalimar Ali-Hack, and former Head of the Private Sector Commission (PSC), Ramesh Dookhoo.
The DPP has sweeping powers and holds an independent office.
Former Public Service Minister, Dr. Jennifer Westford; former Natural Resources Minister, Robert Persaud; Compton Bourne, former Head of the Caribbean Development Bank and UG Chancellor; Ghansham Singh and Kamini Parag-Singh and Florrie Loretta Ramnauth also received house lots.
Singh is said to be the son of former Labour Minister, Dr. Nanda Gopaul. They also paid just over $1.5M.
Ali-Hack and her husband, Moeen ul Hack, a top figure in the Central Islamic Organisation of Guyana (CIOG), paid $1,488,744 for a piece of land. The Certificates of Title were prepared in 2011.
Dookhoo, a Banks DIH executive, was a former Chairman of PSC as well as the Guyana Water Inc. (GWI). He reportedly paid $1,502,500 for his plot with his title prepared in 2010.
Former Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee; former GWI boss, Shaik Baksh and former Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, also received lots, paying just over $1.5M each.
So too did former Army Chief, Rear Admiral Gary Best and sacked Chief Executive Officer of the embattled Guyana Sugar Corporation, Dr. Rajendra Singh.
Also named in the list were Andrew Bishop, a Presidential Advisor in the former administration and former Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission.
Safraaz Khan and George Hallaq, said to be the country’s former Middle East envoy, and a company called Future Developers International Guyana Inc., were also among the other names on the list.
With regards to the 2007 CWC spending, the PPP/C last two administrations had refused to produce reports of their spending.
Guyana had spent hundreds of millions in preparation, including advances to two hotels that were being built.
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