Hospital developer joins in returning controversial Ogle lands to NICIL

Sep 26, 2020 News

One day after Navigant Builders relinquished 30 acres of lands which were controversially transferred during the elections impasse by the coalition government, another developer has announced intentions to also rescind.

Managing Director, Dr. Mahendra Carpen

Yesterday Cardiology Services Inc. announced it had since 2017 reached out to NICIL by way of an Expression of Interest to purchase various lands in Ogle (the “Property”) for the purposes of building a hospital.
The company’s Managing Director is well-known cardiologist, Dr. Mahendra Carpen.
It disclosed that in February of 2020, an Agreement of Sale was signed.
“In June 2020, without the knowledge or participation of Cardiology Services Inc, the property was vested in Cardiology Services Inc. though the financial terms of the transaction had not been completed.”
According to the company, given the circumstances surrounding the vesting of the property, it has “agreed to rescind the Vesting Order without prejudice and revert title of the property to NICIL so as to enable the Government of Guyana to fulfill its mandate to ensure all lands are reclaimed unimpeded.”
Cardiology Services Inc. said yesterday that it looks forward to “working with NICIL and the Government of Guyana to achieve their mutual goals of building a state of the art private hospital at the appropriate time.”
This development follows on a similar decision by Navigant Builders on Thursday. There were questions this year after it was announced by the Coalition government and NICIL that several plots of the Ogle lands, formerly under sugar cane cultivation have been sold to developers.
This happened shortly before the March 2nd elections. Both Navigant and Cardiology Services are saying that the lands were transferred to them despite the payments not being completed.
The highly questionable transactions involved the transfer of the lands, which are located near a major planned highway that would link the East Coast to the East Bank transportation network.
In addition to Navigant Builders, the other companies which conducted transactions were Supergraphics (5.058 acres); GUYOIL (1.500 acres); the Residences at Earl’s Court Incorporated (10.281 acres); Navigant Builders Incorporated (30.000 acres); Premier Sales and Services Incorporated (5.015 acres); Trinuyana Investments Incorporated (19.678 acres), Caribbean Marketing Enterprise Incorporated (21.096 acres), American Marine Services Incorporated (20.000 acres) and Cardiology Incorporated (8.000 acres).
A number of the developers above had indicated plans to build hotels, with sod-turning days before the March 2 elections. The government, under President Irfaan Ali, has said it will investigate transactions involving State properties that took place after the December 21, 2018 no-confidence vote, which effectively toppled the Coalition Government.