There was no “amicable resolution” of the dispute between the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) and the Linden Blue Lake energy project’s investors over the legitimacy of a lease for the area and this has resulted in the latter party taking legal action.
“We believe that there was a breach of contract for the property that was leased to Ms [Benjamin-]Fauconier when we were informed that her lease was terminated,” said attorney F. Anthony, who represents Sharon Benjamin-Fauconier, Director of the Guyana Initiative Against Climate Change (GIACC).
“It is our contention that it was not legally terminated…the long and short of it is we don’t believe that the lease was legally terminated,” the attorney added.
Both sides will present arguments before Justice Fidela Corbin-Lincoln on August 29th.
On May 12th, this newspaper reported that executives of the proposed “mega green project” were bemoaning what they believed was a deliberate delay by NICIL in notarising and filing their lease agreement, although they had been paying rent for over a year.
The site referred to is a 503-acre plot of land bordering the Kara Kara Creek in Linden, in the vicinity of the popular mined-out pond, known locally as the Blue Lake. It comprises depleted bauxite lands once worked by foreign and later state-owned bauxite companies.
Benjamin-Fauconier said that while some persons would have used parts of the now water-filled former bauxite pits to swim, the GIACC believed that the area could be transformed to produce clean energy. She said it also wanted to set up a manufacturing entity, which would produce and export fertilisers, among other products.
It was with that in mind, she said, that she applied to NICIL for the lease and was told that she had to submit a detailed proposal.
NICIL is the agency responsible for the land. The lease with the company was signed under now deceased NICIL Head, Horace James.
Her then attorney, Jerome Khan, had explain-ed that the GIACC has had a “bona fide lease for 10 years”.
“Under the laws of Guyana-the Landlord and Tenants Act Section 6:1 of 61:01— any lease in excess of three years must be converted to a Deed of Lease. This is where the problem is we have, which was [an] intention on [the] part of [the] State to lease or to prepare the deed of lease to be executed by all parties and for it to be notarised and filed with the Registrar of Deeds. This was going to be done by the previous CEO of NICIL, the late Mr. Horace James, but then he became sick and subsequently died,” Khan said.
“After his death, my client has been attempting to get NICIL to prepare for execution, the Deed of Lease. So much so, an appointment was made by Mr Colvin Heath-London for such a meeting to take place for execution of the lease on April 15th, 2019. Ms [Benjamin-]Fauconier, her husband and her team arrived at NICIL headquarters with the understanding that they were going to sign and execute the lease at a date and time set up by Mr Colvin Heath-London, to be told at 9:28 am— two minutes before the scheduled meeting— they were told that Heath-London was sick,” he added.
He said that he has concluded that the stalling of his client’s works is being done with an ulterior motive, although he did not say what that was.
“Based on my instructions, I am led to believe that there is an ulterior motive behind the refusal to prepare and execute the Deed of Lease and at the appropriate time this will be publicly ventilated,” the attorney posited.
He also vowed that he will seek all legal avenues to ensure that his clients are fairly treated even as he stressed that the issue would have been hammered out and an amicable resolution found.
Benjamin-Fauconier had even written to President David Granger, appealing to him to “intervene and correct what is clearly an unfair and unlawful act by NICIL and its representative”. She had said that the President responded and he said that he shall have the complaint investigated.
On the day the president replied, NICIL dispatched a letter to rescind the lease.
