The Attorney General’s Chambers has been ordered to file an affidavit in answer to the challenge to the sales of plots at Pradoville 1 and Pradoville 2.
The AG’s Chambers, which is listed as the respondent to the action filed, has to file its answer within 14 days of service.
Acting Chief Justice Ian Chang, who is hearing the matter in chambers at the High Court, in Georgetown, has scheduled November 23rd at 11am for continuation of the matter.
A group headed by former APNU Member of Parliament Desmond Trotman has moved to the High Court seeking, among other things, to have the sales of plots at Pradoville 1 and Pradoville 2 declared null and void on the claim that the sales were done surreptitiously at undervalued prices to former government ministers, officials and cronies of the PPP/C.
Trotman and the Committee for the Defence for the Constitution Inc had their lawyers, Senior Counsel Rex McKay and Neil Boston, Bettina Glasford and Brenden Glasford, file the action seeking ten declarations.
The applicants want the court to set aside the “purported sale and transfer to the putative owners” of the said parcels of land and an order directing each owner that the legal and beneficial ownership of the lands vest in the Minister of Finance.
The lands have courted controversy for years as there was no clear policy regards their sale, the parcels were sold at very low prices and it was only persons in the former PPP/C government or those close to the government along with a few public officials who were granted plots.
A State Assets Recovery Unit (SARU) report has said the lands were “grossly undervalued” and sold below market value to former ministers and known friends and associates of the previous regime. “At the time of the sale the lands were grossly undervalued and sold substantially lower than the market value for the land thereby depriving the state of its full benefits,” it said, while noting that the lands were sold for $114 per square foot.
The former ministers who were said to have benefited are Jennifer Westford, Priya Manickchand, Clement Rohee and Robert Persaud. Former President Bharrat Jagdeo owns almost two acres of land in the scheme, where he currently lives.
According to the court documents, sometime in 2010 Jagdeo and his cabinet ministers “covertly conceived clandestinely to develop without parliamentary knowledge or approval, two pieces of lands….”
The documents said no money was authorised by Parliament for the development of the project, which was done through the wrongful and unlawful authorisation of former Minister of Finance Dr Ashni Singh through the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited.
It pointed out also that no advertisement was made by the government as vendor in the print or electronic media in Guyana informing the public that the parcels of lands were for sale. The sale and transfer of the titles, according to the group, was a brazen abuse of power in contravention of Articles 149 and 149D of the Constitution and in breach of the rule of law and equality before the law.
