Cevons Waste Management has been given six weeks to vacate its newly constructed headquarters on Mandela Avenue or face civil and criminal action by the state.
“If you fail to do so legal proceedings will be filed against your company and its sub-lessees and this matter will be reported to the Criminal Investigation Department of the Guyana Police Force with a request to investigate and proffer all criminal charges arising out of this transaction,” a letter from Attorney General Anil Nandlall informed Chief Executive Officer, Morse Archer.
In the letter seen by Stabroek News, the AG informs Archer that the 50-year lease signed between his company and the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GLSC) on December 18,2018 is “unlawful, null, void and of no legal effect.”
According to Nandlall the land known as Area C Track B Le Repentir is owned by the National Sports Commission (NSC) via Act No.23 of 1993.
The referenced Act vests in the NSC lands owned by the State, between Princes Street and Sussex Street West of Mandela Avenue and East of the Le Repentir, on the basis of an exchange agreement between the State and the Georgetown City Council whereby the said lands were given to the State in exchange for the State lands on which the Luckhoo Swimming Pool is located.
The AG’s letter goes on to note that Cevon’s was aware that the land belonged to the NSC as the company had previously held a purported lease from the Mayor and Councillors of Georgetown which was voided because the legal title of the land did not reside with the City.
“Similarly the GLSC had no legal authority to lease the said land to your company or anyone else. Indeed their every purported dealing with the said lands is unlawful, null, void and of no effect. Accordingly, the memorandum of understanding and lease which contain a promise to sell the lands to your company are both unlawful, void and of no effect,” the letter declared.
Nandlall further argues that the former commissioner of GLSC Trevor Benn had no lawful authority to promise to sell the land to Cevons since only the President has the to sell state lands by virtue of section 31 of the State Lands Act.
He acknowledges that Cevons appears to have paid a “substantial sum of money” to secure the grant of a lease and title but stresses that the payment of that sum is likely illegal as well.
“This is not only a mechanism not provided for in the state lands act and regulations but it is a procedure unheard of at the GLSC,” the AG notes adding that the fact the entire transation occurred without the knowledge and authority of the NSC compounds the impropriety and illegality.
Finally since the NSC “has plans to use these lands for the development of sports and for the construction of facilities in relation thereto…[the] company [must] vacate the said land on or before the 31st of March 2020”.
A similar directive has been issued to Sol Guyana Inc and Corum Restaurant Holdings Inc who have entered into sub-leases with Cevons.
