The legal challenge of the sale of plots of land at Pradoville 1 and 2 came up for hearing before acting Chief Justice Yonnette Cummings-Edwards yesterday but was adjourned to March 8 so as to ensure that all those named are served with copies of the action.
At the March 8 hearing, it is expected that a date will be fixed for preliminary responses to be made.
A group headed by former APNU Member of Parliament Desmond Trotman moved to the High Court last September seeking, among other things, to have the sale of the land declared null and void. They argued 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.
Number five of the declarations being sought, seeks to have the court find that the parcels of land in the two areas—officially known as Plantation Sparendaam and Plantation Goedverwagting—were sold without “recourse to a valuation tender procedure or an invitation to the public that such lands are for sale [and] is a wrongful and unlawful grant of facilities and benefits…”
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.
In an invited comment following the proceedings, attorney Anil Nandlall charged that there is a conflict of interest in the case as Trotman is a member of the State Assets Recovery Unit (SARU), which had investigated the land sales.
In a report, SARU said that the lands were “grossly undervalued” and sold below market value to former ministers and known friends and associates of the previous regime.
Nandlall is representing former president Bharrat Jagdeo, Clement Rohee, Lisa Ramotar, Dr Jennifer Westford, Dr Rajendra Singh, George Hallaq and Nadia Hallaq, all of whom are named in the court documents as being owners of some of these plots.
Yesterday, Stabroek News was able to confirm with the Unit, which is located at the Ministry of the Presidency, that Trotman is indeed a SARU member. SARU has hired a number of persons based on reports but has provided no public conformation of this.
The Attorney General’s Chambers is listed as the respondent to the action filed.
According to Nandlall, the proceedings must be situated in a context to understand their true nature and purpose. “In my view, they exemplify the authoritarian philosophy of this government and they present another irrefutable piece of evidence that we are moving quickly into establishing an authoritarian state where private property is no longer safe and the constitutional rights of the citizens are subservient to this dominant philosophy of authoritarianism,” he said.
Nandlall stated that in these proceedings, one sees the properties of a former president, other top politicians and persons holding significant positions in both the private and public sectors, at stake.
“At the other end of the spectrum, you see poor and working class single mothers’ properties being confiscated by another arm of the state. We have also witnessed, the seizure of a businessman’s jewellery at the Cheddi Jagan’s International Airport by law enforcement officers of the state; we have heard from Khurshid Sattaur that persons’ confidential tax records are being photocopied by political types; we have seen laws being passed authorising the state to access people’s bank accounts and when amendments to insert certain safeguards were made by the opposition in the parliament, they were rejected; we have seen law enforcement officers of the state surreptitiously following citizens in unmarked vehicles,” he declared.
According to Nandlall, “when these factors are taken into account, the nature and purpose of these court proceedings become clear.”
The SARU report said that “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 noted that the lands were sold for $114 per square foot.
The former ministers who were said to have benefited are Westford, Priya Manickchand, Clement Rohee and Robert Persaud. Jagdeo owns almost two acres of land in the scheme, where he currently lives.
According to the documents relating to the court challenge, 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.
The survey of the lands was carried out and completed on July 1, 2010 and the plan of the said lands was recorded in the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission as Plan 47971 dated July 1, 2010.
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.
