Attorney General Basil Williams yesterday denied that government has compulsorily acquired the private property at Middle and Carmichael streets, while saying the order issued to allow for surveying works was a prerequisite for negotiations with the owners.
Williams, in a statement distributed to reporters during yesterday’s sitting of the National Assembly, clarified that there has been no compulsory acquisition of the two lots on the property, which are owned by High Commissioner to Canada Clarissa Riehl and the Beharry Group of Companies, while making it clear that this can only be done with the knowledge of the owners.
“Moreover, any such acquisition could not be accomplished without their knowledge nor availing them the opportunity to enter into negotiations for the purchase of the land before any acquisition could be occasioned,” Williams said in the statement.
Sources have told Stabroek News that the matter was discussed at Cabinet level and that an order was made to rescind the decision to acquire the land even though Williams’s statement is insinuating that a decision had not been taken. He had previously said each owner would be paid $20M for the lots.
Sources close to Riehl said that she was not aware of the move by government to acquire her property until she read about it in a Stabroek News report and it caught her off guard as she had made it clear to Williams that she was not prepared to relinquish the property.
The government last month issued the Acquisition of Lands for Public Purposes (Government Buildings) Order 2016, indicating the proposed construction of the land at the east quarter of Lot 92 Middle and Carmichael streets and declaring it a public work.
The order grants permission to the Commissioner of Lands and Surveys, together with his agents, to enter upon the land for the purpose of surveying with a view towards acquisition of the whole or a part.
In his four-page statement, Williams drew attention to sections 4, 5 and 6 of the Acquisition of Lands for Public Purposes Act, under which the order was issued. Section 4 of the law empowers the minister, by order, to authorise the Commissioner of Lands or any other person, their agent, servants or workmen to enter upon any land specified in the order for the purpose of surveying or otherwise examining it with a view of acquisition of the whole or part of it for the construction of a public work. Section 5 of the law speaks to the authorized person being empowered to enter and survey and take levels of lands where public works are intended or to dig into the land or do all other acts to determine whether the land is adapted to the purpose.
Section 6, Williams informed, provides that the report of the authorised person together with a plan of the land must be laid before the minister, who, after consideration, may enter into negotiations for the purchase of the land or if advisable may declare that the land or part is required for public work and may alter or annul any such existing order.
“It is manifest in this legal framework that the first option is to engage the owners on the question of a voluntary sale before resorting to compulsory acquisition,” he added.
Williams also referred to Section 8 (1) of the law, which he said ensures that an owner’s land cannot be acquired by stealth. It says, “When an order is made under section 4 or section 6 notice therefore shall be served personally on the proprietor or his attorney if either is resident in Guyana and if he is not so resident or cannot be found shall be considered duly served if it is published in the gazette and in one local newspaper and a copy is also affixed upon a conspicuous part of the land.”
“To indulge or engage land owners whose lands are under consideration with a view to their acquisition on the question of purchasing them by private sale, could open one to severe recrimination, if not done under the protection of a section 4 order as was published in the gazette on the 24th September, 2016. I would have no basis to discuss any purchase of the lands if the acquisition procedure under the Act was not triggered. Only a real estate would do that,” he said, while saying that attacks on him have been “puerile and precipitate.”
Williams had previously said that the plan to compulsorily acquire the lots was inherited from the PPP/C. “It was they [the PPP] plan. We inherited it. We inherited the PPP plan to compulsorily acquire the land,” he said. “… The staff that I inherited recommended that, especially when I was looking to establish a permanent law reform commission and a law review unit. The current premises could not have accommodated such a unit,” he noted, referring to the Attorney General’s Chambers, which are located next door to the property.
However, this has been disputed by both former president Donald Ramotar and then Attorney General Anil Nandlall, who has since called on Williams to produce the evidence to substantiate his allegations.
Ramotar has explained that his government had approached both owners, as it sought to expand the Attorney General’s Chambers, located in the next lot, but they both informed that they were not selling and therefore he was advised to seek alternative lands.
Williams had said that each owner would be paid $20M for their land, a sum which Nandlall has said was not only paltry but pales in comparison to the current market value.
Persons close to Riehl are furious at what has happened and informed that a plan for the construction of a structure on the land had already been approved and she and her husband were waiting for the right time to start the construction.
