Latest update December 23rd, 2024 3:40 AM
Coalition Govt. tied Guyana to $1.9B 10-year rental for UN offices
– sum equivalent to almost two 7% increases for public servants
Kaieteur News – Under the APNU+AFC Coalition stewardship, a 10-year lease was signed with prominent Guyanese singer, Eddy Grant, to rent one of his properties for $188 million annually.
It was in May 2019 when the lease was signed with Blue Wave Apartments Inc., an Eddy Grant-owned company. The property is located at 107-108 Duke Street Kingston, Georgetown and was rented to house the United Nations (UN) offices in one compound.
One of the buildings in the ‘One UN House’ compound
The contract was signed by then Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson and then Minister within the Ministry of Communities with responsibility for Housing, Annette Ferguson.
Importantly, due to the contractual agreement the Coalition signed – if the PPP administration wants to terminate the contract, the State would be required to pay Grant $188,460,800, which is equivalent to one year in rent.
Over the 10-year period, a total of $1,884,608,000 will be paid to Grant in rental fees. Notably, that said money is equivalent to almost two 7% increases for public servants.
During the parliamentary debates in February 2022, the issue was brought up after Member of Parliament Ferguson questioned Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill, on buildings that are currently being rented by the State and the locations.
David Patterson
In response Edghill said, “You would recall this is a matter that came up for public discourse and contention while we sat in the opposition benches.” He had stated that “every quarter, taxpayers of Guyana pay US$235,576 (GYD$47,115,200) because of the said contract.”
“This is just one building and this is the quarterly rent, US$235,576, four times every year, at the exchange rate of G$200,” he added.
After expressing his dissatisfaction with the contract that the PPP administration inherited from the APNU+AFC, he disclosed that even if the government wants to terminate the contract with the owner of the building, due to the contractual agreement, the government would have to pay the owner one year in rent.
Annette Ferguson
The minister had stated that the Government of Guyana (GoG), as a State party, has a responsibility to host UN agencies in Guyana. He highlighted that these agencies were first hosted at different locations. However, according to him, that was later changed and now the government is paying more for less.
In response, Patterson had disclosed that it was the UN that selected the Duke Street property through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. To this, Edghill had responded, “Mr. Speaker, I am not aware of that, but what I am aware of, is that if we had invested US$5million, which is G$1billion that we have already paid to the owner of the building, we would have had a facility which we would have hosted the UN offices comfortably on a plot of land that would have been owned by the State.”
Edghill had posited that while the UN would list the criteria that they are looking for, the State has the responsibility to select the building in the context of what the State can afford.
The minister went on to express his appreciation to the UN agencies that are working in Guyana and noted that the government will work assiduously to ensure that they are properly housed in an energy efficient, cost effective facility where they can all be comfortable.
According to reports, before Grants’ property was selected, the search for a location began with efforts to utilise the CARICOM Headquarters’ Annex. This was, however, “fully subscribed” according to then Minister Patterson. It was also stated that the continuous efforts culminated in the compound of the Eddy Grant’s House, at Duke Street, Kingston.
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