The Leader of the Opposition, Joseph Harmon, has said there is enough land for everyone. This is the same Joe Harmon who served until 2019 as the Minister of the Presidency, who served as David Granger’s right- hand man. While he had to give up his ministerial job because he was a citizen of America, he became Director General of the Ministry of the Presidency, and continued to serve as Granger’s right-hand man. When he served as such a powerful man, he did not know that Guyana has enough land for everyone.
How many ordinary citizens, including their own supporters, received house lots? But the truth is that the just barely-two-months-old PPP Government has already allocated more house lots than Harmon’s party did in Government for five years. The story of APNU+AFC is, in fact, that instead of allocating house lots for Guyanese, they fleeced the country of its land, and the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission was a willing tool to do so.
The Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission, Trevor Benn, was last week sent on leave. He was sent on leave because it is clear that the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission was one of the many agencies that were out of control between 2015 and 2020, becoming part of the sordid story of a Government that fleeced the nation and her people.
There is no doubt that the previous David Granger-led APNU+AFC Government presided over a brazen orgy of fleecing the country between 2015 and 2020. Not only did the central Government and local Government fleece Guyana, but many of the agencies that were supposed to serve the interests of the Guyanese people became part of the obnoxious self-serving habit of fleecing the country.
Trevor Benn, as reported in great detail in the newspapers, sold himself a 2016 Prado for $2.5M. The vehicle was a $25M-valued luxury vehicle that was procured in 2016 for the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission. Benn explained that it was a policy that officers of the Commission were sold luxury vehicles that the Commission depreciated in cost. In his case, he did not deny that the vehicle procured was valued $25M when excise tax and VAT were applied. He did not deny he paid the Commission $2.5M for the vehicle (something the Auditor General will have to confirm). But he claimed that the Commission depreciated the vehicle and offered him the $25M vehicle for $2.5M. Well, he should now depreciate the vehicle and sell it back to the Commission; that would be fair. The most egregious part of this ugly story is that the sale took place just three days before the March 2 elections.
Even as people are still talking about the clearly bogus transaction that allowed Benn to literally walk away with a vehicle paid for by taxpayers, a story has now erupted that the Commission spent more than $21M on meals for the Board and the staff between 2016 and 2020. In 2020 alone, during a time when little work was done; at a time when several officers were campaigning for APNU+AFC, with Benn himself seen at many of the rallies; and during a time when COVID limited meetings and people showing up to work, more than $6M was spent on meals. Many of the people who benefited from these meals are high-paid staff members.
Clearly, the Lands and Surveys Commission brazenly fleeced the nation. Benn was in charge of the Commission, and whether this was under his instruction or not, he is responsible.
During the fleecing binge, between 2015 and 2020, many questionable land transports were signed off to supporters of APNU+AFC. This is especially true after the No-Confidence Motion was passed on December 21, 2018. In fact, just before the elections, there was a flurry of these land deals. The most obvious conclusion is that the Commission was in a great hurry to conclude these transactions, just in case a new Government were to come into office. Clearly, they expected that the fleecing binge would not be permitted by the new Government. It had to happen in a hurry.
Among people who received land in questionable transactions was Keith Lowenfield, the Chief Elections Officer who has now been charged with fraudulent activities during the 2020 elections. Another person is Eric Philips, who was at one time a senior staff member at the State Assets Recovery Agency, an agency that cost taxpayers more than $1B in five years, but did not recover a penny in state assets.
The new PPP Government must establish a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the many questionable land transactions that took place during 2015 and 2020. No one is asking for a witch-hunt. But all land transactions in the last five years require a reckoning. More particularly, the land transactions that occurred after December 21st, 2018 must be audited. All land transactions that occurred before the elections, and definitely after March 2, should be rescinded. Some of the people who received land titles during this questionable time have returned their land. They have done the right thing.
