Govt. seeks market value for Pradoville 2 houselots
Government’s State Assets Recovery Unit (SARU) is actively considering several options in its investigations of the Pradoville Two house lots.
Ex President Bharrat Jagdeo
Minister Keith Scott
On Monday, Minister within the Ministry of Communities, Keith Scott, said that there are indications that several persons, including ex-ministers and former senior Government officials, owned properties before they were invited to purchase house lots in the exclusive Sparendaam area, which overlooks the Atlantic Ocean. Under Government regulations, persons or families who owned properties cannot be allocated State lands for housing. “It was discussed and it is the thinking that one option of recovery will be that persons who own other properties and yet benefitted from house lots in Pradoville Two will have to pay market value for the house lots. We are not sure what system was used to allocate these lands. We are seeing that some of them that benefitted have turned back and sold (the lot).” Scott said that it appears that ex-Government officials were advised to treat the house lots as investments. The minister, who has responsibilities for housing, insisted that the role of Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) was usurped by the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL). In early August, Scott announced that the Pradoville Two deal was handed over to SARU for investigations. The transaction has evolved into a scandal which at first glance speaks of abuse of State resources by the previous administrations under the People’s Progressive Party. At the very least, Government officials said, the deal was improper. Forensic audits are being carried out at both CH&PA and NICIL. The land was taken over and sold by a Cabinet decision under the Bharrat Jagdeo administration. His last term in office ended in 2011. The state-owned NICIL/Privatisation Unit was authorized to do all acts necessary to ensure the vesting of the new development project in the CH&PA, the body which is tasked with overseeing housing developments in Guyana. NICIL/Privatisation Unit was headed by Winston Brassington, an executive who oversaw a number of contentious multi-billion-dollar public infrastructure deals.
Remigrants paid ten times the price that former President Bharrat Jagdeo paid for house lots. Remigrants paid $1,111 per square foot to Jagdeo’s $114 per square foot.
The allocation of parcels of lands to the several former ministers, senior Government officials and friends close to the PPP administration, along with the method to determine the prices paid, were not assessed by the CH&PA. “Those who were allocated the parcel(s) of land, whether they were the owner(s) of land at the time of allocation and the price attributed to each parcel of land, were not under the control of the Central Authority,” Scott had explained. The authority’s role in the Pradoville Two construction seemed to be limited. “The plans showing the survey of the area were done at the behest of NICIL/Privatisation Unit.” The infrastructural works were contracted to Atlantic Construction by NICIL/Privatisation Unit. It has been revealed that NICIL paid more than $100M to remove a transmitting tower from the Pradoville Two land, an area of prime land on the East Coast of Demerara that overlooks the Atlantic Ocean. An entire new facility had to be rebuilt along Dairy Road, West Bank Demerara. NICIL reportedly also spent tens of millions of dollars to build roads, drainage and culverts and lay pipes and in some cases, underground power cables. The developed house lots, complete with infrastructure, were then sold below market value to Jagdeo, several ministers and Government officials and friends. There is no evidence that the house lots sale was advertised or what procedures were used in the allocations of the parcels of the ocean-front properties. Jagdeo himself, according to details of allocations, received two parcels equivalent to two acres. On it, he built an imposing mansion, complete with pool and overlooking the seawall and the Atlantic Ocean. He paid a total of $9.8M. He had owned a property along the Ogle Airport Road in the community that was known as ‘Pradoville One’. However, he sold that property to Trinidadian advertising executive, Ernie Ross. In effect, Jagdeo paid three times less than what ordinary citizens in the Diamond and Grove Housing Schemes, East Bank Demerara, would have been required to fork out. Jagdeo’s payment for the Pradoville Two parcels translated to $5M per acre which works out at $114 per square foot; the ordinary man pays $317 per square foot for his plot. The sale of the Pradoville Two house lots for such a low price would contrast starkly with what remigrants had to pay under the Government’s scheme for returning to Guyana. Remigrants paid more than ten times the price Jagdeo paid for the same size house lot. They paid $1,111 per square foot. Other beneficiaries include Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Shalimar Ali-Hack; former Head of the Private Sector Commission (PSC), Ramesh Dookoo; former Ministers Clement Rohee, Priya Manickchand, Robert Persaud and even former Cabinet Secretary, Dr. Roger Luncheon.