Finance Minister Winston Jordan, just days before the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections, turned over to Brian Tiwarie’s BK Marine Inc. ownership of prime waterfront real estate in Kingston, Georgetown adjoining the Demerara River,
The transaction has since been detailed in the March 29, 2020 publication of the Official Gazette, documenting the sale of Government land to one of the coalition Government’s key financial supporters.
The order, signed by Minister Jordan on February 26, just six days before the General and Regional Elections, documents the Transfer of Property Order.
The land in question includes Lots One and Two Mudlot, Water Street Kingston, in addition to Lot F, being portion of Lot 3, in addition to three others in North Cummingsburg, lots encompassing just over two and a half acres.
According to the Gazette, a copy of the certified order is to be deemed as conclusive evidence that BK Marine Inc has absolute title to the property.
Weeks after the coalition A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) took Office in 2015, Tiwarie emerged as one of the key financial backers of the parties, and had joined in a massive cleanup effort in and around the city.
He was also involved in the construction of the controversial D’Urban Park Project, and was also handed a US$5 million payment from Government after threatening to sue over disagreements with a state contract.
Another APNU/AFC financier, Lloyd Singh, was handed a massive 164,000 acres of prime State Forest located along the Berbice River just three days before this year’s election.
Incidentally, it is one of the same areas that the current APNU/AFC Administration repossessed recently.
INews was told that the last-minute allocation of Guyana’s State Forest was done via a rushed and uncompetitive process that was engineered to favour this particular individual.
A source at the Guyana Forestry Commission told INews that it is highly unusual that an area of this stocking and location had only a sole applicant.
Singh is a known financier of the Government; and in fact had funded the AFC’s head office located on the Kitty Railway and Embankment in Georgetown. At the time, party Leader Raphael Trotman had said in reference to Singh’s apparent generosity, “Businessmen make investments in political parties, and expect a return on their investments.”
