To keep the Mandela Avenue land it recently built its Head Office on, and to obtain a transport, Cevons Waste Management agreed to withdraw all court cases against government, give up one of two contentious plots at Peters Hall on the East Bank Demerara and pay an outstanding $20 million balance, so disclosed Attorney General Anil Nandlall SC.
The company also agreed that the old agreements will be quashed and new ones drawn up going forward.
“They must withdraw all legal proceedings filed against the Government of Guyana and NICIL, in relation to leased lands. The agreement that they have with GL&SC [Guyana Lands & Surveys Commission] is being cancelled and an agreement of sale is being executed, with the proper agency – the National Sports Commission [NSC], for the Mandela Avenue land and they are to pay to the government of Guyana the sum of money owned under the cancelled agreement with GL&SC,” Nandlall told Stabroek News yesterday. He informed that the sum owed is about $20 million, as the company had already paid $80 million on the property which was valued at $100 million.
“The transport will be passed to the company for that land by the National Sports Commission. Also, there are two plots of land that they acquired at Plantation Peters Hall. They are to surrender those two portions of land and they will then get a regular NICIL lease for one portion. NICIL will execute a new lease which includes its regular terms and conditions. That brings to an end all matters of contention between that company and the state of Guyana,” Nandlall declared.
The Attorney General also informed that the various agreements are being examined by the lawyers for both sides.
Yesterday, this newspaper reported that the NSC, upon the direction of the Government of Guyana, had entered into an agreement of sale for a parcel of land situated at Mandela Avenue vested in the National Sports Commission to Cevons Waste Management Inc.
A statement on the Facebook page of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport said that the agreement was entered into on Tuesday afternoon, in the boardroom of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, and in the presence of the Minister Charles S Ramson; the Permanent Secretary, Melissa Tucker; Commissioners of the National Sports Commission (Kashif Muhammed – Chairman, Dellon Davidson, Philip Fernandes, Cristy Campbell, Cheteram Ramdial,); the Director of Sports, Steve Ninvalle; and Morse Archer, Chief Executive Officer of Cevons Waste Management Inc.
Earlier this year, the government had filed a lawsuit against Cevons and others over their transactions with the GL&SC. The government later relented and said that it would strike an out-of-court deal over what it had said were the paltry sums charged by the GL&SC in the purported sales.
In May of this year, the former head of GL&SC, Trevor Benn, was charged over the Cevons transaction which states that between August 31, 2018 and October 1, 2018 at the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission, Georgetown, while being a Public Officer, he misconducted himself by executing a sale of a parcel of land held under Transport No. 336 of 1925 – that portion known as Area ‘C’ being portion of Track ‘B’ Plantation Le Repentir, Georgetown. It contained an area of 1.356 acres – and he caused Cevons Waste Management Inc to pay the sum of $80,000,000 to the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission for the said parcel of land, knowing that at the time he did not have the authority to sell the said land, the said willful misconduct amounting to breach of public trust, without any excuse or reasonable justification.
Of the agreement between the State and the businessman, the Attorney General posited that it was demonstrative of government’s commitment to working to impartially resolve contentious issues created by the past APNU+AFC administration.
“In this transaction, the government had demonstrated magnanimity, maturity, and due regard for private investments and has also demonstrated its willingness to partner with citizens in resolving scandalous transactions entered into under the previous administration,” he said.
“I hope those who are accusing the government of discrimination and witch hunting would see the folly in those reckless allegations. We stated, even while we were in opposition, that where necessary, we will work out amicable resolutions with citizens who have a genuine intention to invest and to create job opportunities and developmental opportunities for our country. We have been consistently doing so with lands transactions at Ogle, at Peters Hall at Eccles and we will continue to do so in relation to lands at various other locations,” he asserted.
