Latest update March 29th, 2024 12:59 AM
Feb 09, 2009 News
– involvement of JPs, Commissioners of Oaths to be investigated
Earnest efforts have been engaged by the Ministry of Housing and Water to ensure that applicants for house lots do not infiltrate the system with intent to make a profit.
This disclosure was made recently by Minister of Housing and Water, Irfaan Alli, when he visited and met with residents at Bush Lot, West Coast Berbice.
According to the minister, information has reached his office that persons who have applied for house lots deliberately do not build, even after three years have passed, because the intention is to resell at a cost that is several times more than it was bought for.
“We hear people are holding $90,000 lots and not building, and after three years, when the value goes up after we put in infrastructure, they sell it back for $500,000 or even a $1M, making a big profit.”
But, according to the minister, the housing project was never designed to be one whereby persons could make a profit; rather, it was intended to help the poorer class of Guyanese access homes of their own.
As such, the minister said, once the Housing Ministry is able to substantiate that persons are engaged in such practices, those persons will be penalised.
“Just as how they want to make a profit off of the investment we have in place to help the poor people in this country, we will charge them a penalty. I am saying wherever this happens, now and in the future, once we at the ministry know, we will enforce a penalty based on the market value of the land. We will investigate them and we will be moving against this practice entirely,” the minister warned.
A house lot applicant, according to him, does not have the authority to resell his lot until 10 years have elapsed.
And as if the exploitation of unsuspecting persons has not been bad enough, the minister disclosed that even worse is the practice of unscrupulous persons selling their lots based on an ‘irrevocable power-of-attorney.’ This practice, in essence, the minister explained, allows these persons to reclaim their lots at will.
But, according to him, “There is nothing like an irrevocable power-of-attorney in law. There is a power-of-attorney that can be withdrawn by the person at any time…”
Minister Alli further disclosed that the Housing Ministry will also be moving against Justices of the Peace and Commissioners of Oaths who have been aiding and abetting persons in this illegal practice.
“We have situations where Justices of the Peace and Commissioners of Oaths are signing agreements…We are now investigating a number of these cases where these persons who were entrusted with public responsibility to ensure fairness and justice are aiding and abetting the process.”
“I am sounding a warning to Justices of the Peace and Commissioners of Oaths that we are going to document these cases, and we will write to the Office of the President on these breaches that we have found,” the minister threatened.
As such, the minister is urging persons with information of such practices to relay same to his ministry with urgency.
In the meantime, he revealed to the Bush Lot residents that the Housing Ministry is working towards developing a further 331 house lots this year. These will represent Phase Three of the housing project at Bath Settlement.
“With that amount of house lots we are convinced, based on the applications we have in the system, that we will be able to completely meet the needs of Region Five in terms of house lots. So, by the end of 2010, we will be able to safely say that every single application that we would have received from Region Five we would have fulfilled.”
According to the minister, plans are already apace to allocate the more than 300 house lots. He added that interviews for 270 persons have been completed last year, which is likely to see them being in possession of their lots possibly before August.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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