Matis had this 10,609 acres of land since 2014

Dec 29, 2019 Letters

Dear Editor,

I refer to two articles carried in the Kaieteur News over the past few days with respect to my functions as Chairman of the Board of the Mahaica Mahaicony Abary Agricultural Development Authority (MMA/ADA).
These articles are captioned:
Conflict of Interest? MMA/ADA Chairman leased 10,000 acres in Mahaica – documents dated Dec 25, 2019; 10,000 acres Mahaica lands leased… Unusual for Chairman to benefit dated Dec 27, 2019.
Let me say that I am saddened by the fact that these articles were written without, as far as I am aware, any attempt to seek clarifications or explanations from me prior to their publication-something which I am of the view, should be a sacred principle of investigative journalism.
That being said, I wish to add as follows: In August 2014 myself and three other persons registered under the name Mc Agriculture Trading and Investment Services (MATIS) was granted a Forestry Permission SFP DEM 21/14 from the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) which contradicts the assertion that “I am the sole owner of that entity, MATIS, registered to Kelvin Saul”.
The SFP DEM 21/14 is a block of approximately 10,609 acres of State Lands lying on either side of Captain Creek in Region 5 -in effect the same land mentioned in your articles.
This land was essentially Forest Land in the Hinterland and Intermediate Savannahs and MATIS focused on husbandry and harvesting of forestry products with charcoal production through systematic and sustained tree felling and land clearing.
In January 2016 (MATIS) took a conscious decision to diversify into other related Agricultural activities (Crops)
The conversion from Forestry to Crops required the intervention/permission of the MMA/ADA and to this end, an application was submitted to the MMA in January 2016 to lease the said block of land for agricultural purposes.
Subsequently, the GFC, which had granted the SFP in 2014, informed the Ministry of Agriculture and the MMA/ADA on August 8, 2019, that it had no objection to the conversion and to the granting of a Lease for the said Land to MATIS by the MMA/ADA.
As per protocol, I recused myself from the MMA/ADA discussions on the conversion and in any event I was not a member of that Committee that deliberated, nor was I the Chairman of MMA/ADA at the time.
The MMA/ADA subsequently approved the conversion.
It was not without an element of surprise and I must admit subsequent annoyance, Editor, that I read the scurrilous allegations by Mr. Harry Gill and Mr. Vickchand Ramphal, both of the PPP/C who egregiously stated that I had obtained the land from the MMA/ADA during this year as part of a pre-election “land-grabbing scheme.”
I wish to reiterate, and there is some irony here, that the Lease for the ten thousand acres of land was obtained by MATIS in 2014 from the PPP/C Administration which is a direct refutation of Mr. Ramphal’s assertion that “this could not happen under the previous (PPP/C) Administration”.
The subsequent MATIS application to the MMA, which is the current excuse for controversy, was merely for a conversion of the use of the said land from Forestry to Agricultural purposes.
The indecent haste of these PPP/C persons in making baseless allegations, against MATIS; impugning my integrity as an official, is sad to say a basic modus operandi of some of the activists of this party.
I am not excluding the legal option against this sickening attempt to tarnish my reputation by those who are economic with the truth or who fail to do due diligence before making allegations against law abiding persons.
Yours Faithfully,
Kelvin Saul
Chairman MMADA, Member of MATIS.

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