Attorney General Anil Nandlall has suggested that there might be a chance for Cevons Waste Management to retain ownership of property improperly purchased from the Guyana Lands and Surveys.
“The matter is being investigated and is being reviewed with a view of seeing how best the situation can be resolved…once we decide on the way forward we will have to regularize the situation,” Nandlall told reporters on the sidelines of the Budget Debate on Monday.
In a letter sent to Chief Executive Officer Morse Archer last week Nandlall had indicated that the land was the property of the National Sports Commission (NSC) and directed that it must be vacated by March 31.
“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 Cevons 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,” the letter declared.
On Monday the AG reminded that his party while in opposition had promised to investigate all land deals entered into by the APNU+AFC.
“We said that we will investigate these land giveaways and where we find that investments were genuine; that investors were genuine and may have been entrapped by the political considerations and political strategy of the day we will review them and objectively try to ensure that people who have genuinely invested do not lose their investments. In their investments are designed to create jobs and to improve the public lot and the public good then those investments will be reviewed with a view of trying to salvage them,” he explained.
He argued that so far Cevons appears to have made one of these legitimate investments.
“Mr. Morse Archer…wrote a very long letter to the president and copied it to me in which he outlined the circumstances and the facts which led to him going on to the land and him investing in the land and the bases upon which he entered that memorandum of understanding and he also explained how many jobs his investments are likely to create in that locality. He also has outlined how much money he has invested and the important partnerships that he has entered into which all seem to be genuine,” Nandlall stated.
He added that even if the investment is regularized it would not erase the alleged impropriety committed when the land was sold to Archer by the GLSC.
Repeating that the matter is still under review Nandlall added that the actual owners of the property, the National Sports Commission have not yet been approached about any possible regularization and stressed that their agreement is necessary since the ownership is enshrined in legislation.
“They will have to address the matter and …if the NSC is on board in tandem with the government of Guyana then [an amendment of the Act] will not be necessary…what we may have to do is survey that portion of the land and extricating it from the ownership of the NSC,” he concluded.
