GL&SC Board member paid $12M for land; adjourning plots sold for $85M, $130M

The PPP/C Government is currently investigating the giveaway of prime State lands that were significantly undervalued and sold to a former Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GLSC) Board member earlier this year.
The land in question is located south of Mandela Avenue in Ruimveldt, Georgetown. It was sold to the two-term GLSC Board member, in March for a paltry sum of $12 million.
Guyana Times understands that the businessman, who owns an auto dealership, secured the land via a lease/purchase arrangement. He was first issued with a lease for the land at a rental of $232,000 per annum and subsequently, the title at a purchase price of $12 million for the plot of land totalling approximately one acre and a half.
According to a Memorandum sent to President Irfaan Ali from the new GLSC Head, that was seen by this newspaper, the former Board member filed an application to lease 0.581 (approximately 2351.2 metres) of land at the location in September 2015 and fees of $10,000 were paid.
It was noted that he also submitted a copy of lease he had previously obtained from the Georgetown Mayor and City Council for 7.1 acres of land for five years at $100,000 annually and dated February 2003. However, that land did not belong to the M&CC.
Nevertheless, the businessman was issued approval for his lease application in July 2019 – some four months after he was appointed for his second term on the GLSC Board – and was asked to conduct a survey as well as to pay a total of $509,000 inclusive of land rent at $232,000 per annum for 2018 and 2019.
The document further detailed that the two different rental/purchase values from the Chief Valuation Officer were found. The first was dated January 13, 2020, and valued the land at $60.8 million with a rental value of $232,000 per annum; while the second, dated March 18, 2020, valued the land at a meagre $13.5 million ($12 million for 0.710 acre and $1.5 million for 0.0887 acre) with the rental value at $250,000.
It was revealed that an Agreement of Sale was made days later, on March 23, 2020 – a time when the country was embroiled in a post-electoral impasse after the March 2, 2020 elections – and signed by then GLSC Commissioner Trevor Benn and the application to the tune of $12 million for both parcels of land – one of which was not on the original lease.
The Certificate of Title dated April 15, 2020, was in the name of the former Board member’s business.
“There is no record of the authority to convert the leasehold to freehold land and there is no record of a request being made to do such a conversion. The Commissioner was obviously utilising the powers under the other by the President [David Granger, who had vested powers to the GLSC Head to sanction rentals and granting of leases, licenses and permission of occupancy of public lands],” President Ali was told by the new GLSC Commissioner (ag), Enrique Monize in the memorandum.
After assuming office, President Ali had revoked the powers that were vested by his predecessor. He now holds those powers himself.
Nevertheless, Monize informed the Head of State that the Lands and Surveys Commission under the APNU/AFC Administration had implemented a new policy whereby persons would write the Commissioner with an offer to obtain the rights to purchase or lease a portion of land. The Commissioner would respond as to the acceptance of the offer and advise the applicant to make initial payments and to file the necessary applications.
“This procedure/approach by the GLSC is unheard of and nowhere in any law or previous policy, it does not allow for competitive price bidding at a minimum,” President Ali was told, among other things, in the memorandum.
Moreover, it was pointed out that not only were the valuations of the land not consistent, but both variations significantly differed from the price paid by other companies for similar properties at the same location.
In one case, a city bank paid $85 million for a 0.723-acre plot of land in the same area, and in another, a local shipping company paid a whopping $105 million for an acre plot.
Other glaring instances include both other businesses paid $130 million each for two plots of land – 0.54 and 0.59 acre, respectively.
The new GLSC Head told President Ali that since the title has already been issued to the applicant, only a legal process can reverse same as Certificate of Titles are considered indefeasible except in the case of fraud.

Review
As such, the Head of State has instructed Attorney General Anil Nandlall to review the transaction and rescind, where possible, or approach the court if necessary.
When contacted for a comment on the issue, Nandlall told Guyana Times that because the individual was a GLSC Board member at the time of the sale, this itself is a conflict of interest situation. He also pointed to the fact that there was no public tendering process for others to get an opportunity to bid for the land in question that was practically given away to the businessman, who is closely affiliated to the former APNU/AFC regime.
“If you look at contracts across the board, he was a strikingly regular beneficiary. Having regard to the market value of those lands, as evident by what other companies paid, the sale to this individual constitutes a criminal giveaway of the State’s patrimony in a transaction that wrecks of cronyism, nepotism and absolutely lacks transparency and accountability. To compound the matter, the Commissioner of Lands and Surveys was never issued with a power to sell land, therefore, on this ground alone, the transaction is ultra vires, unlawfully, null, void and of no effect,” the Attorney General contended.
According to Nandlall, such land giveaways are so prevalent that he was forced to establish a special team to review those transactions – as directed by the President. He noted that in some instances, no monies were paid but titles were issued for prime State lands. (G8)