Dear Editor,
The provision of subsidized housing has always been a fundamental priority of successive People’s Progressive Party (PPP) governments since 1953. In the ʼ50s and ʼ60s, it was the PPP which played an instrumental role in moving thousands from the plantations into newly established housing schemes throughout the coastland after successful negotiations with the sugar estates to assist in providing titled house lots at nominal value. In Georgetown, it was the PPP that built housing schemes in the Ruimveldt area and in Campbellville at hugely subsidized costs to the eventual home owners.
From 1992 to 2015, perhaps the greatest legacy of successive PPP governments was its housing drive designed to provide affordable houselots initially, and then homes to the people of this country who did not have a home and most of whom never dreamt of owning one. Guyanese from every walk of life and from every ethnic group, right across the coastland and in Regions Nine and Ten benefited from this programme. Conservatively, over one hundred and twenty thousand house lots are estimated to have been distributed. A house lot in an area where roads, drainage and other infrastructural facilities were built and water and electricity installed, was sold for as low as $50,000. These areas were converted from cane fields, rice fields, swamps, cow pastures and forest. Hundreds of millions were expended in clearing, filling and building up these lands to prepare them for eventual allocation as house lots. Anyone who believes that $50,000 was the market value of those lands is insane.
As the economy grew the housing drive was adjusted to suit the affordability and demands of a more financially affluent population. Naturally, the sizes of house lots were eventually increased and locations closer to the urban centres attracted higher value for lots distributed by the government. With the passage of time, other dimensions were added to the housing programme, such as the sale of large plots of land to private developers to build housing schemes and gated communities for resale to individuals. Despite its dynamism, one factor remained constant in the government housing programme: every single plot of land was sold below market value. The PPP government’s housing programme is the envy of many Caribbean leaders. Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr Ralph Gonzalves, has publicly commended it for emulation in other Caribbean territories.
Pradoville 2 was no different. It was part of this housing drive. The price at which lots at Pradoville 2 were sold, was identical to the price which was generated for a plot of land located at Liliendaal, sold to a private developer through a public bidding process. Liliendaal is approximately two miles closer to Georgetown than Pradoville 2. Yet the Pradoville 2 housing project was converted into a huge political scandal by politicians, which was fuelled by an abetting media. The scandal drew its sensation from the fact that former President, Bharrat Jagdeo and many ministers of the PPP government and top state officials were allocated plots of land in the scheme. When the APNU+AFC assumed government, the project became the subject of a forensic audit. From May 2015, to current, this scheme has been the subject of reckless news reports containing all manner of baseless and scandalous information on an almost daily basis in the press.
This week, it became the subject of criminal investigations. A former president who has constitutional immunities from the criminal legal process during the tenure of his presidency, was arrested in relation to acts done while those immunities were in force.
This arrest is manifestly unlawful. He was detained for questioning. The detention is equally unlawful. Several other former ministers of the PPP government and current members of parliament were also arrested and detained. They were told that the reason for their arrest and detention was questioning in relation to “misappropriation of state funds and conspiracy to defraud the state of revenue, to wit: Pradoville 2.”
This is unparalleled ignorance. No matter how they are twisted and manipulated, the facts surrounding the purchase of house lots from the Government of Guyana at Pradoville 2 by those who did so, can never yield any causal nexus to the offences which the officers claim they were investigating. Hence I am of the firm view that every single arrest was unlawful and the consequent detention amounted to false imprisonment and the deprivation of those people’s liberty, as guaranteed to them as a fundamental right and freedom by the Constitution of Guyana. In the context of the government’s housing policy, the fact that these lands were sold and bought below the market value, can never lend itself to the establishment of criminal liability.
It is my firm opinion that this exercise has nothing to do with law and the administration of justice. It is a purely political witch-hunting exercise, designed to denigrate and humiliate the leadership of the PPP.
- The agency chosen to conduct this exercise is not the Guyana Police Force (GPF) but the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU). This choice was not made by the Commissioner of Police but by the political directorate. I was instrumental in the establishment of SOCU. It was created for the exclusive purpose of investigating organised crimes under the Anti-Money Laundering Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) law. Pradoville 2 has nothing to do with this law. Indeed, since this government has assumed office, SOCU’s mandate has been transformed into something radically different. It takes instruction directly from ministers of the government. In fact, it is Minister Khemraj Ramjattan, who first announced, two weeks ago, that former ministers of the PPP government will be arrested and charged for Pradoville 2, shortly.
- Minister of State Joseph Harmon admitted in the National Assembly that SOCU is being funded out of his ministry’s budget. Clive Thomas, of the Ministry of the Presidency, delivers a weekly sermon to the Kaieteur News about the illegalities committed at Pradoville 2 and in the process, he convicts those whom he finds guilty. Commissioner of Police Seelall Persaud is on record on numerous occasions, distancing himself from the operations of SOCU. Mr David Ramnarine, acting as Commissioner of Police, at about 16:00 hours last Tuesday, disclaimed any knowledge of the arrests which took place by SOCU’s officers during the course of the day. I have seen no evidence whatsoever that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is advising on this matter. I am also aware that Police Legal Advisor, Justice Claudette Singh, has advised that there is not sufficient evidence to launch criminal proceedings. In addition to political directions, the only advice which seems to be fuelling these investigations, is from Mr Sam Sittlington, who is, obviously, trying to earn his keep.
- The government has already made it clear that if or when these criminal charges are filed, they will be prosecuted by special prosecutors, whom the government has already identified. Two are practising out of Mr Basil Williams’s former law office; two are practising out of Mr Joseph Harmon’s former law office; another one is the brother of a minister of the government; and another was on the APNU+AFC list of candidates which contested the 2015 general elections. In this political plot, there is no role etched out for the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions whom the Constitution invests with the exclusive mandate to prosecute criminal offences.
In conclusion, the political stench which the Pradoville 2 investigations exudes, can be detected a hundred miles away. I have advised that every arrest and consequent detention be legally challenged for compensation. The lawsuits should be filed against the officers and Mr Sittlington, personally, and the state. Likewise, every criminal charge, whenever they come, will also be challenged. The law and the legal process must never be used as a political weapon, or an instrument of vendetta. Men must battle their personal and political grudges like men. They must not use the might of the state to do so. The charges will never survive the challenges. This political ploy will backfire. This much I promise.
Yours faithfully,
Mohabir Anil Nandlall
