Rapid assessment team uncovers land being sold by NICIL at “con” prices

– recommends urgent review of transactions

The rapid assessment team that reviewed 19 agencies including the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), has made some disturbing discoveries that State land may have been sold by NICIL to cronies of the former Government at undervalued prices.

Commissioned by President Dr Irfaan Ali after he was sworn in, the team submitted its assessment report on Wednesday last. According to a source familiar with the contents of the report, land was being sold by NICIL at rates akin to “con” prices.
“There’s a consistency in that the land was being sold at con prices. There’s an urgent need for every land transaction post the No-Confidence Motion, to be reviewed, investigated and where undervaluation happened, the Executive President needs to use his executive powers to reverse those transactions,” the source said.
According to the source, a review of these transactions was one of the recommendations made by the team. When it comes to the land at Ogle sold by NICIL, the source described the transactions as “not bankable.”
The new People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government had announced recently 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) will be reviewed.
Indeed, on Friday Attorney General Anil Nandlall, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira, and Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill, met with the Commissioner of the Guyana Lands and Survey Commission, Trevor Benn, at the Ministry of Legal Affairs.
Benn had been requested by the PPP Government to provide a list of all transactions executed by his agency under the State Lands Act and the Lands Department Act, dating from December 22, 2018.
He had also been requested to provide details of the process by which these transactions were executed, the location and description of the transactions and the names of all beneficiaries. According to a statement from Nandlall on the meeting, Benn provided some of the information and has promised to supply the rest during this week.
Despite being toppled by a motion of no-confidence that was tabled by the then PPP/C Opposition, which was passed with a majority vote on December 21, 2018, the APNU/AFC Administration remained in office and instead of operating in a caretaker mode in accordance with the Constitution, continued in a “business as normal” manner.
In fact, the coalition had challenged the passage of the NCM but it was validated by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in June last year, which ruled that elections should be called within three months as stipulated in the Constitution. But elections were not held until March 2020 – some nine months after the CCJ ruling and more than one year after the passage of the motion.
During that time, the caretaker coalition conducted many underhand deals including the massive giveaway of prime State lands to political affiliates and technical personnel in critical State and electoral positions.
In fact, even after the March 2, 2020 elections, the APNU/AFC Government, in its waning days, had transferred lands to a number of companies through NICIL. Those vesting orders were signed by former Finance Minister Winston Jordan.
Only last month, businessman Glen Lall filed legal proceedings against the then APNU/AFC Administration over its rush to finalise land deals despite elections being held and the National Recount showing their loss at the polls.