Sparks flew during last night’s NCN corruption debate when Alliance For Change (AFC) Chairman Nigel Hughes faced off with Attorney General Anil Nandlall and Minister of Labour Nanda Gopaul, as to the nature of former President Bharrat Jagdeo’s real estate acquisitions, trading barbs on whether or not he acquired his present Pradoville 2 property at below market prices.
This latest instalment of the debates focused on the former President’s pension, benefits and other facilities. A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) which had announced that it had ceased participating in the debates because of its flawed format stayed away last night.
Hughes’ beef was not with the seven-eighths of salary pension as had been made clear by the Opposition in the National Assembly some weeks ago, but with the other benefits and facilities in light of the fact that the former President has a large house. His concern is how the benefits will be affected by the size of the property and the number of people that might be needed to take care of it. But he also took issue with Jagdeo’s acquisition of the property.
“Why can’t the former President acquire lands at market prices? Neither you (Gopaul) nor Nandlall have answered me as to where I could acquire land for $5 million per acre,” he said.
Hughes said that the Office of the President is opening up itself to the allegation that it has been influenced by the purchaser of Jagdeo’s first property in Pradoville 1. The house was sold for US$600,000. “We cannot allow people who become President to expect that the State will maintain their palaces,” said Hughes.
Hughes said that in the United States, Jamaica and Trinidad among other places, the benefits for the Head of State or Head of Government are capped. “I don’t know any former President who acquired a palace at below market prices and asked the State to pay for it,” said Hughes.
However, Nandlall said the former President’s acquisition of property has nothing to do with his benefits and other facilities.
Nandlall spoke of the benefits and other facilities for the Leader of the Opposition and said that in many ways, this legislation is markedly similar to the President’s Benefits and Other Facilities Act of 2009.
Gopaul said that former President Jagdeo has submitted all of his documentation to the Integrity Commission with regard to the acquisition of the properties that he owned. “Let us all tender documents to the Integrity Commission and you will see who is found wanting,” said Gopaul, accusing Hughes of shifting the goalposts from speaking of the benefits and other facilities to the former President’s acquisition of assets. Gopaul and Nandlall also levelled the accusation that Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham acquired huge plots of land in Belfield and other places while in office.
However Hughes relentlessly asked to be shown any beach front property that can be bought for $5 million per acre. “Offer me an acre of beach front property for $5 million per acre,” he said. “This is State lands acquired by the Government and distributed to the President and his friends,” Hughes charged. Jagdeo acquired the 5M per acre property along the sea wall at Sparendaam at what is now known as Pradoville 2. Numerous questions were asked about how these lots were allocated and the cost for them.
Gopaul said that the prices paid are consistent with the Government’s rates and said it is most unfair to say that the President enriched himself through the acquisition of the land.
Hughes wanted to know where the land was advertised for sale prior to the former President’s acquiring it. To this, Gopaul retorted that former Regional Chairman of Region 10 Mortimer Mingo knew of the land’s availability and had attempted to make a purchase. Mingo had been approached directly by the Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon about the land.
Nandlall took offence at Hughes’ repeated description of the property that the former President’s now owns as a palace and said that Jagdeo’s house is none of Hughes’ business unless he could prove that taxpayers’ money was used to finance it. Said Nandlall, “I did the transaction…I negotiated the transaction. I visited the house. And [this notion] that the President embarked on a conquest [to enrich himself at the expense of the State] must be wholly rejected.”
Speaking on the debate, trade unionist Carvil Duncan representing civil society said that pension is a right but it is the fringes that come with it which are another question.
Gopaul insisted that all other Presidents of Guyana owned properties and enjoyed tax free status, going back to Burnham. He said however that Burnham earned a salary that was at that time 16 percent higher than that of the Attorney General.
The other member of the panel last night was Chief Labour Officer Charles Ogle.
On August 2, the National Assembly passed a Motion brought by APNU representative Carl Greenidge to review the benefits and other facilities and APNU will on the resumption of the National Assembly in October bring to the House a Bill seeking to amend the 2009 legislation with a view to imposing caps and limits on the various categories of benefits and facilities.
Greenidge in an interview with this newspaper some weeks ago said, “In spite of this provision in the Constitution, the Government has only now sought to and actually provide for benefits, but has provided benefits which are unlimited. The benefits will be enjoyed throughout the lifetime of a former President. There is no cap on the number of vehicles to which he is entitled, no restriction on the utilities bill, no restrictions regarding medical facilities to be enjoyed by an unspecified number of dependants beyond a spouse.”
He said that the Constitu-tion makes no provision for additional benefits such as a salary or allowances on top of a pension and that no other politician or individual public servant enjoys these additional benefits along with a pension.
