OP rallies behind Irfaan Ali

Jan 05, 2012 News

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–         property sits on land sold by GuySuCo, other lands at Leonora were sold to Ed Ahmad for $80M

 

The government yesterday called the Kaieteur News report on the Housing

Minister’s sprawling property at Leonora, West Coast Demerara “media excess” and “definitely not fair.”
However, the government failed to offer any facts regarding Minister Irfaan Ali’s acquisition and development of the property.
Kaieteur News understands that the residential building, which has reportedly been rehabilitated and remodeled, was once part of the property of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySucO), and lies just behind what was once the Senior Staff compound for Leonora Estate.
In 2008, the land on which Ali’s property sits was sold by GuySuCo through the Privatisation Unit and the National Industrial Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL).
Ali’s property of 0.96 acres at Lot 30 (a) Sea Spray, Leonora, together with another piece of land (1.02 acres) cost a total of $14,620,000, the Privatisation Unit stated in a press release in January 2009.
These land sales, along with others, the Privatisation Unit stated, reflected “Government’s increasing focus on achieving proceeds for GuySuCo especially at a time when the company needs financing whilst promoting employment through real estate development and/or productive activities.”
Also in 2008, the Senior Staff compound Leonora (Block R), just in front of where Ali’s property is, was reportedly sold strictly for a value-added wood processing operation to a company named South American Woods Incorporated, owned by Guyanese-

American scandal-scarred realtor Ed Ahmad, who was arrested on mortgage fraud mid-last year while boarding a Delta Airlines flight to Guyana
At the time the land was sold to Ahmad, the Privatisation Unit claimed that all of buildings had been destroyed by fire or were vandalised leaving only the land to be sold.
The land was sold at a price of $80M for 16.3098 acres, resulting in an average price of $4.9M per acre.
Minister Ali, through state television NCN, claimed that his acquisition of the GuySuCo property, was no secret deal or unscrupulous, insisting that the property was publicly advertised for sale.
The TV news report quoted Minister Ali as saying that “as any other Guyanese” he put in a bid for the property and his was the highest bid price offered.
Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon yesterday said that “professionalism” was in short supply when the report was thought of and “put into operation.”
Luncheon said that the Cabinet – the council of government ministers, on which Ali himself sits – vehemently rejected the report.
Luncheon said that the government was concerned about the “antecedence” and “what it purports” to show.  Dr Luncheon described the report as descending into muckraking and yellow journalism.
In addition, Luncheon claimed that the author of the report was of “ordinary mind” since it could not have been any “run of the mill reporter” who conceptualized the report.
He went further to claim that the report was part of something much more “insidious” and “comprehensive.”
But while denouncing the report, Luncheon did not seek to offer any of the facts regarding Minister Ali’s acquisition of the Leonora property.

In a response, Kaieteur News publisher Glenn Lall asked whether the news media is no longer allowed to publish information regarding public officers and challenged the government to reveal details about Minister’s Ali’s acquisition and development of the property.
The New Year’s Day edition of the Kaieteur News carried a picture of Minister’s Ali’s Leonora house, a pool and pool house under construction next to the Atlantic Ocean, all located on the land.
Ali became Minister of Housing and Water three years ago.
Meanwhile, late yesterday, the Office of the President said that it views with extreme distaste the resort of elements of the domestic media to character assassination and defamation.
“The recent Kaieteur News headlines that targeted Minister Irfaan Ali are the latest in the series of yellow journalistic activities. The Office of the President rejects such underhand tactics intended to demean and question the probity of the young minister. Minister Ali has made significant contributions to the development of Guyana particularly in the Housing and Water sectors.”
OP, in rejecting the newspaper coverage, said that it rejects the malicious effort and anticipates that Minister Ali’s disclosures would continue to justify the confidence that the administration and the Guyanese people have in him.
“The public is warned that these examples of yellow journalism are now known to be a part of a dedicated plan to discredit government personalities and thus the administration The Office of the President will continue to expose the intellectual authors and their wicked designs.”

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