NICIL is giving holders of divested Wales Estate lands up to November 27 to come forward and establish occupation, failing which it is likely that some of those plots will be reclaimed.
In a notice in yesterday’s Stabroek News, the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) announced the extension of the occupation survey by a week as only 113 of the 164 allottees of the West Bank Demerara lands have responded.
The PPP/C government is contending that these land deals under the APNU+AFC government were improper and rescission notices have been dispatched to the lease holders. Some of the lease holders have, however, complained that they have already invested large sums of money and that it would be unfair to dispossess them from what they believed to be lawful deals.
Checks by Stabroek News on the divested Wales estate lands show that farmers in the main have occupied the plots, while the owners of areas on the main access road have not done anything with them.
“A review was done and it was suggested that we verify occupation; that is in what way the lands are occupied …so a team from the Ministry of Agriculture, the RDC (Regional Democratic Council) and NICIL was set up to do this,” NICIL’s Privatisation Specialist Rachel Henry last week told Stabroek News from the Wales office, where the exercise was being conducted.
She said that the survey began on November 3rd and early every morning groups from the ministry and agencies, along with surveyors and the owners of the land being verified that day, would head into the fields to conduct the occupation survey.
Attorney General Anil Nandlall has said the former head of NICIL’s Special Purpose Unit (SPU) Colvin Heath-London could not explicate the process used to dispose of thousands of acres and this was why the survey was being done. Heath-London’s services were recently terminated and he was taken into custody by the police on Friday in relation to land deals at Peters Hall, East Bank Demerara. (He remained in custody up to last evening.)
Nandlall said that his government is focusing on land sales and leases orchestrated by the SPU.
Transformed
This newspaper visited some of the Wales lands last week to see firsthand what was being done. And while some of the thousands of acres of the old sugar estate had been transformed into small and large-scale farms for livestock, rice, cash crops, orchards, soursop and other fruit cultivation, prime properties on the main access road were not occupied.
Persons who were carrying out works said that they also had farmlands at the back and that to the best of their knowledge, the prime lands are owned by professionals from Georgetown. They include former Ministry of Finance officials, two members of the judiciary, a security firm owner and two doctors, among others.
Grass filled most of the yards and vines covered the dilapidated houses except for a few where renovations were underway and a three-storey concrete structure replaced a former wooden home on the Wales Public Road. This newspaper was not successful in ascertaining who the owner of that property is but was told it belongs to the head of a security firm.
On the farms, some of the former Wales Estate cane cutters and other workers were employed by owners of the leased lands but they did not want to speak.
Pigs, cows, sheep, chicken and even turkeys are being reared on a large scale, while crops, including callalloo, cabbage, eggplant, lemons, limes, soursop, rambutan, plantains, and bananas are being grown.
Documents for most of the farmlands were also obtained by this newspaper and from an assessment, over 100 persons from the Region 3 area were recipients of 25 acres or less of lands while lands in the hundreds of acres went to businesses.
Cooperative
In Belle East, most of the leasees are from the Belle West area and they have formed themselves into a cooperative. The largest acreage a leasee holds here is 14.3 acres. The recipients with the greatest acreages in the group are Yongendra Lilia (13.4 acres), Michael Suidat (14.1acres), Mohammed Rasheed (14.3 acres), Roopnarine Garbharan (14.1 acres) and Owen Phillips (13.9 acres).
Over in the Catherina Field, Falana Fraser and Greenheart Tree Inc. occupy 46.8 and 60.9 acres, respectively.
In the Rachael Deyonge Field, S. Chintamani and Parmanand Maraj hold the most leased areas, with 166.7 and 126.9 acres respectively.
For the Goedverwagting Field, Unancy Chichester and Derek Venture hold the most lands with 77.1 acres and 115.9 acres, respectively.
Officer-in-Charge of the Wales Estate Charles Browne and Edward Graham are the only two lease holders in the Klyn-En-Ryhn field and hold 27.2 and 30.6 acres, respectively.
Larger leases were handed out in the Potosi, Sisters and Vive-la-Force fields.
At Potosi, TSK Inc. has 806 acres while Marva Alleyne has 334.7 acres. Only the lands at Potosi were developed. On the windmill and solar-powered farm, there is a 50-acre plot where soursop cultivation is being spearheaded by the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) with a plan to extend to another 100 acres of the fruit that would see a “soursop plantation”. Another 100 acres is dedicated to rice. A citrus grove has begun developing on 50 acres. There is also a livestock farm with cattle and sheep. Separately, pigs are being reared.
NAREI is also partnering with another leasee for a coconut plantation and to start the large-scale cultivation of English potatoes.
The People of African Descent Sustainable Development Group is the only occupant of the Sisters Field with 57.3 acres. Nothing has been done on those lands
At Vive-La-Force, someone identified only as Baptiste, holds 182.8 acres. Then there is Dr. Cambridge (only name listed on the document) with 144 acres, Extra Virgin Caribbean Inc. with 492 acres, Nugget Gold Inc. with 1,079 acres, Rayo Inc. with 752.5 acres, Deo Ruppee with 433 acres and Stephen Persaud with 266 acres. No development of those lands has started either.
Guyana’s Attorney General said that last month he, the Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha and the Chief Executive Officer of NICIL R K Sharma met with a number of persons who have received notices of rescission. It was revealed during that meeting by some of the lease holders that they had expended large sums and they felt it was unfair that they be punished for the failings of the SPU. “Some of the persons complained that they had already expended monies on the lands and they have begun occupation. It was decided that NICIL will conduct an occupational survey to determine who are in occupation of the lands and the extent of the occupation,” Nandlall explained.
NICIL said that when the occupational survey is over, it would be up to the government to decide what happens with the lands and it was just currently assisting with the occupation and verification of the lands leased.
Shuttered
The Wales Estate was the first of four to be shuttered by the APNU+AFC government at the end of 2016. Some 1700 workers were laid off and up to July of this year, many still bemoaned the hardships they continue to face.
But shortly before the March 2nd 2020 General Elections, NICIL announced that large swathes of lands were being leased to companies for a coconut estate in one case and in another an agro processing and storage centre.
On November 6, 2019, then PPP/C MP and now Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat had expressed concern regarding the proposed coconut estate and questioned why a company would want to enter into an agreement knowing that the government was then in caretaker status.
“Was there a feasibility study done for future usage of the Wales estate? If this was done, were former GuySuCo estate workers or their union representatives made aware of the opportunities deemed viable? Coconut estates are not labour intensive, and it would be interesting to see if the study shows this to be the best use of the former sugar lands. If, however, there was no study, how could a project move from application to grant of lease in such a short time? This would be highly abnormal, especially given the ‘caretaker’ status of the Granger administration,” he had written in a letter to this newspaper.
“I do not believe this or any other major land transaction will be able to withstand scrutiny in the very near future, investors must do due diligence before making commitments, a simple Google search would show that the Granger administration was deemed a caretaker for the affairs of the country and that in light of its caretaker role it should be restrained in the use of its legal authority,” he had added.
