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Apr 20, 2014 News
“No one doubts that in the Bharrat Jagdeo terms, the patrimony of our state has been hived off to friends and cronies in an unparalleled frenzy of nepotism and favoritism.”
A Parliamentary Opposition party is urging Government to swiftly convene a Commission of Inquiry (COI) by natural resources experts to investigate the distribution of state lands, spectrum use and frequency access, and lease of forestry/mineral concessions in Guyana under successive post-Jagan regimes.
This is according to Vice Chairman of the Alliance for Change (AFC), Moses Nagamootoo, who in a brief interview with this publication made the call and said that an investigation must firstly produce an inventory of state assets transferred to National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) along with the proceeds received from their sale.
When President Donald Ramotar came to office in 2011 he promised full disclosure on the deals but the document which was prepared by NICIL’s Executive Director, Winston Brassington, had been criticized by many experts as designed to disguise the transactions made by NICIL.
According to Nagamootoo, “No one doubts that in the Bharrat Jagdeo terms, the patrimony of our state has been hived off to friends and cronies in an unparalleled frenzy of nepotism and favoritism.”
Nagamootoo said that NICIL cannot easily wash its hands of these deals and the Leonora scheme is just one questionable transaction.
The Leonora deal referenced by Nagamootoo, involves land purchased by Jagdeo’s close associate who has been indicted in the US over financial crimes.
Edul Ahmad, the foreign-based businessman bought over 16 acres of prime land from the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) through NICIL.
It is reported that Ahmad now stands to make profits of over $600M when he converts the property for which he paid a mere $80M, to a housing scheme, inclusive of a shopping mall, full gas and service station and facilities to house two banks.
According to Nagamootoo, “Sugar workers have not been allowed to indicate an interest to either buy the lands on which the sweat and blood of their parents have been buried with their bones, or to cultivate through peasant cane farming cooperatives.”
Nagamootoo insists that Government must produce a comprehensive land use policy after wide consultation, so that lands allocated for industrial development are not converted into exclusive housing schemes in ad hoc deals.
“We need a working democracy not an opportunistic ad hocracy…I feel that the hammer ought not fall on the head of Ed Ahmad but on NICIL and GuySuCo for yet another sell out scandal.”
Following reportage on the questionable land deal with Ed Ahmad, NICIL denied any knowledge that the portion of the land sold to New York-based Guyanese Edul Ahmad is being converted into house lots.
NICIL claims that it only acted as an agent when the transaction was done between Ahmad and GuySuCo and according to the agreement, the land at Plantation Groenveldt on the West Coast of Demerara could be converted to a shopping mall once the wood processing plant is the first structure on the property.
NICIL said that GuySuCo entered into a Restrictive Covenant as set out in the terms and conditions of the sale, published in the Vesting Order, effecting the transfer of title, that “the property shall not be used for any other purpose other than for the construction and operation of a wood processing facility with the option of future development in manufacturing, industrial and commercial activities including the construction and operation of a shopping mall, providing that the construction of the wood processing facility is commenced first” and that construction of the wood processing facility commences within one year of the agreement.
NICIL also defended the selling price that GuySuCo’s land was subjected to two prior bids when in 2003, the highest valid bid amounted to $30M and in 2004, no bids were received for the property.
NICIL and Brassington, over the years under the Bharrat Jagdeo tenure, has come in for intense criticism and calls for investigation over some of the deals it has made.
On such gained widespread notoriety that was called the “deal that stinks to high heavens,” is that involving Jagdeo’s best friend Dr. Ranjisinghi ‘Bobby’ Ramroop when NICIL sold his company Queens Atlantic Investment Inc (QAII), the Sanata Complex.
Brassington, Jagdeo and Dr. Ramroop had also come under intense scrutiny over the sale of the Guyana Pharmaceutical Company along with the Government’s subsequent drug purchasing policy after the deal.
Ahmad is also no stranger to negative publicity. He was charged by US Federal authorities for his involvement in a massive fraud scheme and in 2012, he entered a plea deal with US agents, and was found guilty of knowingly and intentionally conspiring to defraud several lending institutions over a 15-year period.
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