Housing Minister repudiates Kaieteur News’ article on EBD housing development - demands public apology from AFC’s Ra mjattan

Minister of Housing and Water, Irfaan Ali is demanding a public apology from leader of the Alliance for Change (AFC), Khemraj Ramjattan, who earlier today was  “disrespectful, loud and abusive” to one of the Ministry’s secretaries during a telephone conversation.

Abusive         

The Minister had directed the secretary to call Ramjattan to remind him of an invitation that was sent earlier via email; to a press briefing at his Brickdam Office in response to issues that he (Ramjattan)had raised in a Kaieteur News article.

Minister Ali said that the AFC leader has always complained about lack of transparency and public access to what goes on at the Ministry and as such, he sought to provide an opportunity for the Member of Parliament to openly ventilate his concerns in front of media operatives.

“I want all the corruption agencies and human rights’ bodies who speak about public accountability to understand this… his response was, ‘how can that chap demand me to come to his press conference, tell him to haul his ass,” Minister Ali stated.

He went on to explain that, “he was loud and abusive and slammed the phone down. We are hoping to request GT&T to get a copy of the recording…This is a man who talks about being upright and morally straight and this is how he treats an ordinary public servant, who is basically doing her duty, I find this to be disgusting, lawless and an abuse of power.”

Public Apology           

The Minister is calling for nothing short of a public apology and said that until this is forthcoming, his understanding of Ramjattan would be that he is “just unethical”.

Manipulating the truth

Responding to an article published on Christmas Day entitled “Eccles to Providence hijacked by private developers”, the Minister said that it is a manipulation of the truth.  He explained that the first phase of the East Bank development saw investment in swamp lands from both the public and private sectors. The cost of land at that time, ranged from $4M to $6M in addition to infrastructure cost per acre.

The average investment by the private sector for a service acre of land was approximately $10 to $15M. Further, the first phase of development was advertised on December 15, 2010.

The eligibility criteria used to grant these lands were outlined in the expressions of interest and the framework through which proposals were to be submitted. All of the proposals received, were examined and evaluated within the context of the criteria.

The article also attempted to convey the impression that most of the lots from Eccles to Providence were not allocated as “normal” houselots.

The Minister explained that the policy for the Ministry’s housing programme is based on the development of many partnerships. The majority of the developments went to the public sector for housing purposes.

In fact, between Eccles to Providence, the Government developed more than or approximately 4,000 lots.

“What the article is seeking to do is imply that we gave the land out before the advertisement, but the land they are referring to was the area under development by the private developers in response to the December 15, 2010 advertisement, so this is again, a manipulation and misrepresentation of the truth,” the Minister clarified.

Propagandistic Madness

With regards to claims of some leaked document that maps out land that were earmarked for housing in the areas between Eccles to Herstelling, the Minister said that, “there is absolutely no leaked document because the map that was in Kaieteur News was made available since 2011 to all the media and to every single person who had an interest in the development of the East Bank.”

He added that the Housing Ministry has nothing to fear in relation to any so-called leaked document because its business is conducted in a fair, open and transparent manner.

All of the land in Eccles was used for public sector housing; this amounted to approximately 1000 lots. He reminded that the 1000 homes project, for which the launch, site visits, and press conferences were attended by Kaieteur News, is located in Perseverance.

These lots would go under the public housing development programme, specifically targeting clerical and service workers.

“The speculative, manipulative agenda of Ramjattan and Kaieteur News to misguide people with propagandistic sensational madness bounded by no moral or ethics remains nastily exposed,” he said.

With regards to Ramjattan’s statement that “poor people have been pushed in the backdam,” the Minister said that all of the technical and socio-economic studies clearly point to the cumulative impacts of private investments and future road links between the East Bank and East Coast on the future value of lands that are considered ‘backlands’.

The Minister also spoke of the vast benefits of the model of public-private partnerships, particularly as it relates to housing development.