The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) is calling for enhanced transparency in the allocation of state-owned lands, inclusive of a public reporting mechanism to show how, and to whom, for how much, and for how long state lands have been leased.
The GCCI also says that any leasing of former sugar estates should be done in a way that optimises land use, and provides benefit for the persons who live around such lands.
The body made its position known during a press conference on Wednesday at its Waterloo Street, Georgetown headquarters.
“We would like to see a clear and understandable land-use policy. We would like to see a clear and understandable process by which companies can go out and be beneficiaries of land allocation”, said GCCI President Nicholas Boyer.
Boyer is of the view that the lack of such transparency has triggered frustration among Guyanese, which is partially responsible for the uproar over the weekend about an instance of land allocation.
“Over the weekend, there was much sensationalism with one of our former executive directors, and I think that has since been proven to have been…a mistake in the gazette or been misleading….what you are seeing as a result of the lack of clarity and transparency in this is a lot of uproar in various sections of the business community…that ‘I have applied but I have not seen anything,’” Boyer explained.
Over the weekend, the Kaieteur News and Guyana Times reported that 3,199 acres of real-estate along the East Bank of Demerara were allocated to a resident of North Ruimveldt. It was later revealed that the plot of land allocated was actually 3,199 square feet, as opposed to acres.
Notably, this issue was the result of a clerical error, as opposed to a lack of transparency, but Boyer believes that the ongoing frustration with the way land allocation is handled in Guyana loomed large over the issue.
Boyer also referenced the recent allocation of estate land to a new company in Guyana.
On November 5th, Stabroek News reported that around 700 acres of the shuttered Wales Sugar Estate has been leased to the newly formed Amazonia Expert Services Limited (AESL), which has expressed the intention to enter the coconut industry.
Former Executive Director of the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI), Dr. Arlington Chesney, who is a principal in AESL, had told reporters that the company “have been given a lease for the land and we are in the process of getting a lease for the processing facility,” he noted, explaining that the current lease which is for 20 years in the first instance carries an option for renewal.”
Boyer said “immediately following that announcement, I had received a call from one of our large agro processors…they had applied to do coconut farming. This is a Guyanese-owned agro farming company that had applied to do coconut farming at Wales estate and was not granted it …unfortunately I cannot disclose the name because they requested to remain anonymous,” he said.
He added that the applicant received no explanation as to why the land was not allocated to him.
AESL has since said that the lease was negotiated and consummated between the Extra-Virgin Coconut Products (EVCP), which was registered on November 12, 2015, and the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), for approximately 680 acres of land at the closed Wales Sugar Estate, West Demerara, to establish a Coconut production and processing facility.
Boyer, who disclosed that he had successfully applied for a portion of land to be allocated to him, but decided against the venture due to the uncertainty caused by the political climate, said the way land is being allocated “begs the question, what is the process being followed for the allocation of lands in the former sugar estates at Wales and Hope?”
“The reason there was such uproar on all sides of the political divide is because clearly people want a transparent process in terms of how the lands, state land and former sugar lands are being allocated, and I think some form of reporting to understand how these lands have been leased, who they have been leased to, and what is the value of the lease…whether a monthly payment or annual payment… this is all information that should be on public record,” Boyer said.
“…This sort of transparency is important for us to hold our leaders accountable too,” he added as he asked “Has anybody in the press seen or understood how much of the Wales and Ogle Estates have been allocated so far?”
“Right now, I do not think we have seen any invitation to tender in the newspaper. I do not think we have seen that any land has been allocated. And the structure or methods of submitting proposals to get that land allocation,” Boyer observed.
Meanwhile, former GCCI president and current executive Deodat Indar added that transparency in the process is vital for confidence in government “and transparency in the process of the agencies in government who are issuing this land”, as he lamented what he views as allocation of land in an inequitable manner.
He said he believes that land is “going out in large chunks to people who we [have] never seen in Guyana…to people who never pay tax in Guyana. People who just show up, just off the plane and getting massive tracks of land.”
“We have a lot of Guyanese companies who have been here struggling with we in the good times and the bad times and…not getting anything,” he added.
Indar said there is a need to “ensure that every application, and every allocation must be made to the public.”
