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Nandlall has opened way for his former colleague ministers, Jagdeo to be charged for Pradoville 2 – Minister Sharma
Minister Jaipaul Sharma
There are grounds for the entire Cabinet of Ministers along with its former president, Bharrat Jagdeo to be charged for the Pradoville Two land sales.
That’s according to Junior Minister of Finance, Jaipaul Sharma.
He said the grounds have been made possible by former Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, who in a recent letter to the editor argued that the current Cabinet, under President David Granger, is inextricably complicit in breach of procurement law for the Demerara River bridge feasibility study.
“Mr, Nandlall said, not me, he said so, that the expenditure of those funds for the study is not only in violation of the Procurement Act, but is also in violation of a series of criminal statutory and common law provisions and principles.”
Sharma noted that the former Attorney General has insisted that the entire Cabinet is intimately and inextricably complicit and that the transaction must constitute the most vulgar abuse of the laws of this land by a Government.
“Nandlal said it is criminal. He said too in his letter to the editor that constitutionally, Cabinet’s responsibility is collective. In the commission of a crime, they would all be acting in concert and aiding and abetting each other.”
According to Sharma, with such an “abundance of legal advice” from the former Attorney General, there is clearly a path for the investigative and prosecutorial authorities to proceed with charges against Jagdeo and his former ministers.
Sharma argued that while there is immunity for a president while in office for his actions, that immunity does not offer protection for illegal or criminal acts.
“When Mr. Jagdeo was President of Guyana and now Leader of the Opposition, he always challenged critics that accused his government of corruption to provide concrete evidence. Well you have Jadgeo’s concrete mansion as the evidence. Jadgeo needs to tell this nation when and where he put his
Former president, Bharrat Jagdeo
hand in a bag and pulled out a two-acre houselot and how come his Minister of Housing was personally involved in allocating house-lots to special persons consisting of colleague ministers, and friends and supporters of the PPP/C and the DPP when Pradoville 2 was never made as a public offering.”
In fact, all 19 of the former ministers and Jagdeo himself have to be charged, Sharma said.
Sharma urged the Police, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Shalimar Ali-Hack; and Police Legal Adviser, Retired Justice Claudette Singh to put fit and proper criminal charges to members of Jagdeo’s cabinet.
“From indications they sat and deliberated on the illegal vesting and subsequent transfer of property by the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) to themselves at below market price when the property was not even legally the property of the authority.”
Sharma would be referring to the investigations by the police’s Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) into the sale and development of about 15 acres of seaside property at Sparendaam.
It was cynically dubbed Pradoville Two by the public for the SUVs that are parked there.
There lands were reportedly sold to persons close to the administration, including a few sitting ministers in the Jagdeo cabinet that ended in 2011.
The fact that the lands were never opened to public offers and that state resources were used in a questionable manner to develop the properties before it was parcelled and sold below value is what SOCU has investigated.
Several of the files are now before that Police Legal Advisor for advice.
It is said to be one of the biggest case of corruption that the administration is pursuing against the previous administration for corruption.
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