(Trinidad Express ) Former agriculture minister and government senator Clarence Rambharat is in Canada working remotely as special adviser to Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley.
He is working on a digital Single Point of Authority for State Lands, an information technology (IT) platform to manage record-keeping and all transactions involving State lands.
He has also been working with the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) on more than 50 reports of land fraud involving Government employees that he personally investigated and submitted for criminal investigations.
In a surprise move on March 16, 2022, Rambharat resigned as Government senator and minister of agriculture, land and fisheries, citing a desire to spend time with his family who reside in Canada.
He was replaced by current minister Kazim Hosein.
Nigel de Freitas was also appointed a minister in that ministry and specifically oversees lands.
Within days of his resignation last year, Rambharat spoke on several media outlets about rampant land fraud at the ministry and claimed he had been lobbied to approve a fake deed for a doctor who was seeking a $6 million mortgage from a commercial bank.
In the same month of his resignation, a police statement said Jimboy Bruno, a checker, from Bon Air Gardens, Arouca, and Devon Richardson, a contractor from Panco Lane, San Fernando, were charged with criminal offences relating to land fraud.
Bruno is an employee in the Office of the Commissioner of State Lands (COSL).
Police said he is accused of forging a letter dated February 3, 2020, granting permission to a man to occupy State lands in South Oropouche in exchange for a payment of $700.
Richardson is accused of using a forged document to get permission to use land at Hindustan Junction, New Grant, Princes Town.
Corruption, inefficiencies and archaic systems have long dogged the management of State lands.
In an interview with the Sunday Express, last week, Rambharat said following his resignation, he spent two months in the country but has not returned since.
All his work has been done virtually, he said.
Asked whether he intended to return to T&T to live at any time during his three-year special-adviser contract, he said, “All the work I do can be done remotely.”
Questioned further on whether he received threats to his life as a result of his efforts to regularise record keeping and transactions involving State lands, he said, “No death threats were received by me. However, it was clear to me the work was dangerous.”