Positions from PPP General Secretary BHARRAT JAGDEO Coalition’s record on land giveaways not forgotten – Jagdeo

ThePNCR-led APNU+AFC Coalition “shamelessly” engages in a public campaign, according to General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Bharrat Jagdeo.

“They are operating as if we all have collective amnesia…like we all have short memories,” he said during a news conference at Freedom House, Robb Street, on Thursday (May 18, 2023).

The Coalition’s Ganesh Mahipaul, on Thursday morning (May 18, 2023) claimed that the PPP/C’s focus in trying to win support in Linden, New Amsterdam, Georgetown and other areas to gain control of communities so that “waterfront properties” can be given to the “friend” of the PPP/C government.

Responding to him, Jagdeo charged that the Coalition’s record on land giveaways, particularly after the December 2018 no-confidence motion and after the March 2020 General and Regional Elections, has not been forgotten.

The PNCR-led Coalition’s record show that there were:

• 45 Orders for land transfers (Orders 4 to 49), which including land to the Coalition’s Jermaine Figueira, his brother and others. The orders were signed on February 28, 2020, and published in the Official Gazette on March 23, 2020.

• 18 Orders for land transfers (Orders 50 to 67), which including land to the Coalition’s Amanza Walton-Desir and others. The orders were signed on August 23, 2019, and published in the Official Gazette on August 31, 2019.

• 6 Orders for land transfers (Orders 75 to 80), which including land to the Coalition’s Valerie Patterson-Adams and others. The orders were signed on September 13, 2023, and published in the Official Gazette on October 19, 2019

“I can go down a long list and Mahipaul claims that we want to control Linden and New Amsterdam because we want to give out lands to friends and family…it is shameless…Mahipaul and Norton should not mention anything about land policy… in the years they were in government, how many people received house lots? Nothing was developed…all they were doing was taking back lots from people who got land and reallocating those,” Jagdeo said.

Land Giveaways

Among the most prominent giveaways were those that took place in June 2019. These included:

1. Marlon Bristol, Head of the Project Management Office within the Ministry of the Presidency received:

• 1 acre in Mocha, Region 4 - February 2019

• 12 acres in Linden (at Dallawalla, the proposed site for Deep Water Harbour), Region 10 - June 2019

• 80 acres in Bohemia, Region 6 (the proposed site for Deep Water Harbour) – February 2019

2. Great Wall Inc. – of which Saratu Phillips is a Director, received:

• 20 acres at Schoonard Foreshore, Region 3 (in the Demerara River – proposed site for shore-based facility)

– File Number 332242/3

• 20 acres at Good Fortuin, Region 3 (in the Demerara River – proposed site for shore-based facility) – File number 3322421/3

• 50 acres at Best Foreshore, Region 3 – File Number 332231/38

3. Aubrey Heath-Retemeyer, Deputy Head of SARA, which falls under the Ministry of the Presidency received:

• 10 acres on the Linden/ Soesdyke Highway, Region 4, in 2019 – File number 411412/522b

• 1 acre Mocha, Region 4, in 2019

4. Eric Phillips, SARA Special Assistant, within the Ministry of the Presidency - received:

• 1000 acres in the Essequibo River - April 2019 – File Number 321132/1604

• 1000 acres in the Demerara River in 2019 – File Number 331231/7

Another official who recently received land was the now sacked former Chief Elections Officer (CEO) at the Guyana Elections Commission, Keith Lowenfield. Lowenfield received: 216 acres at Millie’s Hideout, Region 10 – June 2019; and 2 acres at Mocha, Region 4.

In addition to these transactions, handled by National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), and the Guyana Lands and Surveys Comission (GLSC), lands were also given away in the Mahaica Mahaicony Abary/ Agricultural Development Authority (MMA/ADA) scheme.

Effort To Recover Lands

Meanwhile, Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, charged that the PPP/C Government has not wavered from its commitment to investigate suspicious land giveaways by the former APNU+AFC Coalition.

In October 2021, Nandlall said, “We would have spoken, at length, about land giveaways. Some of them we have settled already. Others are still to be handed over to the Guyana Police Force and the other investigative agencies.”

Notably, in March 2021, in the National Assembly, Nandlall underscored that the lands under review are those which were gifted away to the Coalition’s ‘friends and cronies’ without any known public process. “Where possible we will take the requisite steps to restore those lands to the ownership of the people of this country,” the Attorney General said. He had cited instances where thousands of acres of prime State lands in Georgetown and in other areas, including ocean front and river front parcels of land, were illegally given to the friends and cronies of the Coalition. He had said, “The Honourable members gifted BK Marine a wharf valued $40 billion for only $20 million, passing Title to him which expressly says that it is free from all liabilities, meaning that he does not have to pay a cent more and passing this Title after they lost the March 2nd 2020 elections. Point to any Afro-Guyanese or better yet any Afro-Guyanese village that the Honourable members have spent $40 billion in over the last five years.”

The Attorney General had said that audits would be conducted by the Office of the Auditor General, following which the Guyana Police Force and the Special Organised Crime Unit would be invited to investigate.