October 13, 2016 Source

Cabinet has decided that orders to compulsorily acquire private lands on Carmichael Street to extend the Ministry of Legal Affairs will be rescinded, well-placed sources said yesterday.

Sources say that cabinet reached this decision on Tuesday even though it has also asked Attorney General Basil Williams for an explanation of the orders for acquisition. Williams is to prepare a report on the matter but this newspaper was unable to ascertain when it is to be submitted.

Williams had confirmed last Friday that under The Acquisition of Lands for Public Purposes Act, government was seeking to acquire lands owned by Guyana’s High Commissioner to Canada, Clarissa Riehl and her husband and the Beharry Group of Companies.

Riehl and her husband own the plot located at the corner of Middle and Carmichael streets while the Beharry Group owns the piece located between Riehl’s and the Ministry’s building.

Government issued an order last month to acquire the east quarter of Lot 92 Middle and Carmichael Streets which was signed by Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson. This is the land owned by Riehl.

According to a notice in the Official Gazette of September 24, the land is described as follows: “East quarter of Lot numbered 92 …Middle and Carmichael streets …with all the buildings and erections thereon, save and except the building and erections situate on sub-lot lettered ‘A’  part of the said quarter lot the property of Patrick L O’Dowd, and save and except the said sub-lot ‘A’ as shown and defined on a plan by Sugreen A Nehaul, Sworn Land Surveyor, dated 19th June 1947, and deposited in Deeds Registry on 26th June, 1947, transported to the said Patrick L O’ Dowd on 23rd May, 1960 – No.910.”

An order was also issued in relation to the Beharry land.

The acquisition of private land by the state has been a sensitive issue for a number of decades.

Patterson has since distanced himself from the acquisition of the land, while saying that all queries for its use should be directed to Williams. “Ask Basil,” he said when he was questioned on Friday by this newspaper.

Williams, who told a news conference last Friday that the government had not had any negative responses from either property owner, has claimed that the plan to compulsorily acquire the land was inherited from the PPP/C administration.

However, this has been disputed by both former President Donald Ramotar and then Attorney General Anil Nandlall, who has since called on Williams to produce the evidence to substantiate his allegations.

Ramotar has explained that his government had approached both owners, as it sought to expand the Attorney General’s Chambers, located in the next lot, but they both informed that they were not selling and therefore he was advised to seek alternative lands.

Williams has also said that each owner would be paid $20M for their land, a sum which Nandlall has said was not only paltry but pales in comparison to the current market value.

Sources close to Riehl said that she was not aware of the move by government to acquire her property until she read about it in a Stabroek News report and it caught her off guard as she had made it clear to Williams that she was not prepared to relinquish the property.

Stabroek News was told that a plan for the construction of a structure on the land had already been approved and that she and her husband were waiting for the right time to start the construction.