…lessee to pay mere $20,000 annually for 1st five years
Documents have come to light showing that the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) controlled Georgetown Mayor and City Council in 2021 granted almost 4000 square feet of land to the PNCR through a representative of the party.
The lease, which was signed and took effect on January 28, 2021, was signed between acting Town Clerk Julian Orgista and PNCR Chairperson (Agricola) Elizabeth Williams-Niles as the lessee, for 3877 square feet of land at Plantation Rome (East Bank of Demerara).
According to the terms and conditions of the lease, PNCR would hold the lease for 99 years from January 2021 until December 31, 2119, with an option to renew it for another 99 years upon giving notice to City Council. They would pay an annual sum of $20,000 to the Mayor and City Council (M&CC), for the first five years.
“If the lessee fails to pay on the specified date aforementioned the lessee will be subject to a late fee of 5 per cent of the annual fee, due and payable for a period of one calendar month from the due date. Such annual rental, however, is subject to the right of the lessor to review same every 10 years,” it states.
The lease, which was seen by this publication, goes on to stipulate that the land must be used for commercial purposes only. Additionally, the lessee is not allowed to sublet the land and must seek permission to change the use of the land or to commence construction. Any improvements made to the land will be deducted from any purchase agreement between M&CC and the lessee for the land.
“All property may be sold at a current market related price and shall be determined by a majority vote by the council and subject for final approval by the Minister of Communities,” the lease states.
Interestingly enough, the word ‘may’ is used instead of shall, when referring to if the market price will be used when selling the land. And while the lease includes provisions for any improvements to become the property of M&CC if the lease is terminated due to breaches, all buildings on or improvements to the land would become the property of PNCR should the time on the lease naturally elapse.
“On the expiry of this lease by effluxion of time or upon the surrender or cancellation thereof, all buildings or erections and all improvements on the land hereby leased shall belong absolutely to the lessor,” the lease states.
The M&CC is run by the PNCR, through Georgetown Mayor Ubraj Narine and a PNCR majority-controlled city council. It has been run by the PNCR since before 2018, when the combined APNU/AFC won 23 seats in Georgetown during the last LGE, compared to the seven won by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C).
The PNCR, which dominated the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) coalition when they were in power, has a track record for presiding over the distribution of lands to persons closely aligned with the party.
In fact, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo had admitted last year that the Government is still in the process of coming to grips with all the land that the former APNU/AFC Government sold to friends and family, while in office. He had made it clear, however, that even as the Government takes stock of the land sold out, it will continue to make an effort to recover these lands.
“You recall the land policy. Up to now we can’t figure (out) how much land they sold, to whom, we’re trying to recover this. After the elections, (they) put out a gazette signed order to transfer (land) to over 100 persons, plots of land in Linden, to cronies,” Jagdeo said.
According to Jagdeo, a lot of the land was distributed to friends and family of the former APNU/AFC Government, not to ordinary people who were struggling to get a piece of land. He challenged persons to check who benefitted from most of the land distribution, noting that in many cases they were politically connected.
“Now, those people are going to get 1000 houses being built, because the President promised that in Linden. And they just got another 400 lots at Amelia’s Ward. But you check. In five years, (a lot of the) persons who got plots of land were all political connected.”
Days after they came to power in August 2020, the new PPP/C Government had announced that all of the land deals conducted by the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GL&SC) since the December 2018 passage of the No-Confidence Motion (NCM) would be reviewed.
In a statement at the time, Attorney General Anil Nandlall had said that “A review of all leases, licences and permissions to occupy public lands, granted since the 21st day of December 2018, will be conducted.
Meanwhile, efforts for a comment by this publication on the granting of the lease, proved futile.
