Former GLSC Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Trevor Benn
…JANICO believes mix-up over ownership of the land by NICIL or GLSC led to the issue
By Lisa Hamilton
March 12 ,2021
Manager of JANICO Industrial Engineering Limited, Compton Blair, in an exclusive interview with the Village Voice News on Thursday, confirmed that his company has not received the land it paid to lease from the Guyana Lands and Survey Commission (GLSC) since 2017.
However, Blair was adamant that the transaction was not an underhand one but believes that GLSC initially thought it had ownership of the land which was later said to belong to the National Industrial and Commercial Investment Ltd (NICIL).
Even so, he said that the Former GLSC Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Trevor Benn should have simply seen to it that the company was refunded its payment instead of the perennial wait.
“We did apply for land at Guyana Lands and Survey and we got an MOU, that is since 2017 we’re talking about. On to now we ain’t see this land,” Blair said in the interview.
The present matter hit the wider media when Benn was arrested on Wednesday morning for questioning by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in relation to the leasing of some six acres of land at Ogle, East Coast Demerara (ECD) to JANICO in 2017.
According to GLSC Commissioner (ag) Enrique Monize, the land doesn’t exist under the GLSC. The lease of the land was secured for $27 million on May 8, 2017 for a 50-year period and with $200,000 rent per acre expected yearly.
An article published by Guyana Chronicle in February stated that, not knowing how to treat with the matter, Monize contacted Attorney General, Anil Nandlall about the transaction.
“I have caused a research to be done and I have been unable to determine any vacant, available land under the control of the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission,” Monize wrote to the AG, the newspaper reported.
The comment “under the control of the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission” is exactly where the JANICO Manager believes the problem lies. He believes, as he has heard, that there was a mix up with the ownership of the land, whether by GLSC or NICIL.
However, asked whether he visited the land before the Memorandum of Understanding was signed, Blair said: “It was never shown to us.” Blair was one of those who participated in the 2017 transaction. The company want the land for expansion purposes.
He said: “You see, when you apply for a lease, there is a four-step procedure. After you pay your deposit they’re supposed to take you and show you the land but it never happened no mind how much time I go, and I suspect something is amiss.”
The entire $27M in question was paid in two parts with the first half paid after the MOU was signed. Added to that, Blair said that, over the years, JANICO also never requested that the sum it paid to the GLSC be returned as it was assumed that they would not be swindled by a Government agency and that the process was simply taking time, though very long.
Asked why the company did not report the matter to higher authority over the years, the Manager explained: “I dealing with Lands and Survey all the time, who I could have reported it to?…although two years passed and we didn’t see the land we still said, ‘alright, we dealing with a Government agency, we can’t get con or anything’ because all the payments was by cheque and was to the Guyana Lands and Survey.”
Blair confirmed, when asked, that there was direct interaction with Benn. However, he denied that the transaction was conducted with deceitful intentions.
“Let me make this clear. This was a straight transaction that we wrote the Commission about land. They respond to us and then we did the MOU. At no time them ain’t get no bribe or anything pay any way. No time at all. Some people saying well [its] because you ain’t pay ‘something’ you ain’t get the land and all craziness but the man never, never, never tell me anything like that. He never put nothing like that to me. I honestly feel what I’m hearing is true that maybe the land was promised to the Commission and instead it went to NICIL so he ended up without the land. But then, what should have happened, if that is the case, he should have told us that and said: ‘look, I ain’t got the land, take back your money’ and I ain’t think he would have been in any problem today. That is what should have happened. But maybe he was hoping against hope that the Commission will still [receive the land],” Blair expressed.
When this publication inquired on Thursday morning, Benn was still in custody.