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More silence on exclusive ‘Pradoville 2’
This photo was taken a few weeks ago at Sparendaam, East Coast Demerara where construction is in full swing for a number of homes for government officials. There have been questions whether the state-owned lands were sold in a fair and transparent manner.
* matter addressed already, says Irfaan
*AFC: the public has the right to know
Amidst questions over ongoing construction at what seems to be an exclusive housing scheme at Sparendaam, East Coast Demerara, a government official has said that issue has been addressed in the media already and that the transaction was done according to established procedures.
There have been questions whether a large piece of land located behind the Sparendaam Police Station, next to the East Coast Demerara seawall was distributed in a fair and transparent manner.
The land formerly housed a transmitter belonging to the National Communications Network which has since been relocated to Parfait Harmonie, West Bank Demerara.
The land was sold in pieces to several government officials, including President Bharrat Jagdeo, Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, and the army chief, Commodore Gary Best.
Kaieteur News had emailed questions of the land transaction to Minister of Housing and Water, Irfaan Ali. Yesterday, when contacted, the Minister said that matter was ventilated in the press already and he had nothing more to say.
Over a week ago, the Minister had written to Stabroek News following a news report which accused him of berating a reporter in the Parliament after the reporter had asked questions of the Minister.
According to Ali, his Ministry follows a clearly defined and well-documented process in land allocation.
“The process was no different in the case of the East Coast Demerara housing development at Plaisance. The CH&PA (Central Housing and Planning Authority) has elaborated several mechanisms which include Public/Private partnerships, high income development, middle income development, medium income development and our internationally acclaimed low income settlement programme.
“The land itself was subject to approved valuation and sold at market value,” Ali said in his statement to the Stabroek News.
Yesterday, leader of the Alliance For Change, Raphael Trotman, while stressing that he has no problems with the rights of officials to pursue their private goals, said that with increasing attention being paid to the issue, there should at least be some answers.
Even more importantly is the fact that President Jagdeo, a top public official, is involved, and this should necessitate the urgency with which these answers are given.
“The public has a right to know.”
The AFC leader promised that his party would be forthcoming with another statement in the event that there are no answers to the issues being raised.
Already, construction is in full swing with water, electricity and drains in place.
Stabroek News in response to Minister Ali’s letter, had pointed out that the issue is not what the rules and procedures are, “but whether they were followed in this case. Was the land advertised publicly, for example, and how was it allocated and valued?”
The newspaper had also called in the Housing Ministry to issue a press release for the benefit of the public detailing the specifics of “what transpired in relation to the Sparendaam land in terms of tendering (or the absence thereof), advertising, valuation, sale, etc, rather than the meaningless generalities he offers above”.
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