If necessary, the government is prepared to take legal action to ensure that the controversial leasing of Red House to a company linked to the former PPP administration is rescinded, according to Minister of State Joseph Harmon, who says the Attorney General has been tasked with looking at all available options.
Harmon told Stabroek News that Attorney-General Basil Williams has been told that “he is to examine each and every way in which the lease can be terminated and that the Red House be returned to the people of this country out of the hands of a company to which it was, in our view, quite unreasonably transferred.”
During the budget debate last month, Harmon had disclosed that the PPP/C administration had granted a 99-year lease of Red House to the Cheddi Jagan Research Inc, a private company, at a rate of $1,000 per month. He also said that although the building was leased to the private company, the state continued to pay the salaries of the staff.
The “sweetheart” deal has not gone down well in many quarters, with questions being raised over the payment of such a small fee.
Harmon informed that Williams has sent for all the documentation regarding the deal and he is currently looking at the options available to government.
“I know that he has asked for additional documentation and he has been given them but the clear direction by the president is that he is to find ways of bringing that unreasonable… situation to an end. Even if it means taking legal action,” he said.
Harmon previously had said the national monument, which was the former home of late president Cheddi Jagan, was leased to the Cheddi Jagan Research Inc, a private company whose members were linked to the PPP. He said among those listed on its executive are former president Donald Ramotar, Geoffrey Da Silva, Nadira Jagan-Brancier, James Rose, Michael Khan, Kellawan Lall, Mohammed Sattaur and Hydar Ally.
Asked if any efforts were made to contact any of the executive members for an explanation as to what occurred, Harmon pointed to Ramotar having “almost justified” the move.
“When you are dealing with persons who, in the face of an open and a blatant wrong, actually feel that that wrong is a right, you are actually dealing with a group of persons who, in my view, they have a very twisted logic or a very twisted perception of morality or what is right or what is wrong. Because there is nowhere I can see, in any part of the world, where something that belongs to the state can be transferred in that manner to a small group of persons and you can still consider that to be right,” Harmon said.
Stabroek News has attempted on numerous occasions to reach out to Ramotar and other senior members of the PPP but these efforts have been unsuccessful. The party is yet to release a statement on the matter.
Earlier this month, Ramotar told another section of the media that he saw nothing wrong with the deal or government paying the staff at the location even though the property had been leased.
The lease agreement was finalised sometime in 2012, after the then government had spent millions to renovate Red House.
Harmon said the issue is likely to come up in engagements with the opposition, whenever they start. “…So that maybe we can have some resolution to this problem that does not involve having to go to court. I trust that at least they would recognise that this was something wrong and it must be corrected,” he added.
He added that checks are still being made to unearth similar deals that may have been made under the previous government.
Days after the disclosure of the deal, former Auditor General Anand Goolsarran called for the revocation of the lease. “Considering that this building was completely refurbished at enormous costs to the state, the shock was even greater to learn that the property was leased since 2012 to this company for a nominal sum of $1,000 per month for a period of 99 years. To add salt to injury, the staff of the centre continued to be paid by the treasury,” he wrote in his Stabroek News column on accountability.
“The agreement should therefore be rescinded, and those responsible should be held personally responsible for this abuse/misuse of public resources, which by definition constitutes an act of corruption,” he added.
Some legal sources have said the issue ought to be taken to court, where it can be properly dealt with. A source said that in an effort to save money and time, the administration should scrap the lease and let the PPP/C decide on whether it will fight the decision in court. If this happens, the source said the former administration has little legal grounds to stand on, particularly since the proper procedure was not followed for the granting of the lease and the case was a blatant example of abuse of office.
