Govt. reach settlement with buyers of repossessed Peter’s Hall lands – Dr. Ashni Singh

Aug 10, 2023 News

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Kaieteur News – The Government of Guyana has reached a settlement with the buyers of lands located at Peter’s Hall, East Bank of Demerara (EBD) by allowing them to pay the rightful market price for the prime commercial properties acquired under the A Partnership for National Unity +Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) administration.

This explanation was provided to the National Assembly on Wednesday by Senior Minister within the Office of the President with the Responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh. Dr Singh was at the time responding to a question asked by APNU+AFC Member of Parliament (MP) Annette Ferguson.

After the Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) took office in August 2020, the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) received three files from the Attorney General for the investigation of leases of several acres of prime state land at Peters Hall, which were done without any valuation, public advertisement, or Cabinet decisions.

The Opposition MP raised questions regarding the sale of the lands by referencing comments of Attorney General Anil Nandlall, SC that made headlines in the Stabroek News.

Citing the article under the caption: “Land repossessed by government at Peter’s Hall resold at market value,” Ferguson queried the details of the sale.

“Can the Honourable Minister inform the National Assembly at what prices the lands were sold at and to whom?”

In response, Dr Singh said the government had reached a settlement with the original buyers of the lands even after the government had repossessed it.

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The list of buyers includes Jian Fen Yu which acquired 18.07 acres at sold price $617.99 million; Construction Equipment Inc. that bought 4.65 acres $159 million; Puran Brothers Disposal Inc. got 9.94 acres at $339.9 million; Source One Oil and Gas Marine Supplies that acquired 4.6 acres at $156.6 million, T&R Waste Management has 4.9 acres at a market value of $167.6 million and Starr Imports Trading acquired 4.7acres at $161.4 million.”

Pressed further on the procedure used by the National Industrial & Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) to select the buyers, Dr. Singh noted all of the aforementioned purchasers had already acquired lands under the previous government.

He explained “We inherited a list of people that have been sold lands without any due process and any administrative process followed …There was no selection by this government, in fact this administration inherited a list of people who had been sold those lands”

Dr. Singh explained that even though the correct procedure was not used in the land acquisition process with the previous government, there was already standing agreements with the purchasers.

As a result, Dr Singh said that the current administration settled with several of the buyers. He lamented that it was the APNU+AFC administration that failed to dispose of the land using the correct procedure.

“The records will reflect that in 2018 under the APNU +AFC administration… they granted leases on the East Bank of Demerara including those at Peter’s Hall. These leases had several defects that granted the lessees the rights to sell or assign their rights to third parties, some of whom did exactly that making substantial profits.  In fact, that was the main defect that these sale or assigning of lands could be done without the approval of any State authority.”

He continued, “It would also be public record that these lands were part of a series of land giveaways which happened ‘while the sun was setting,’ on the then APNU+AFC government,” he said.

Dr. Singh said that when the current government took office in 2020 it reviewed the transactions and made efforts to settle with the parties involved or regularize these transactions.

“We approached the persons in possession of these lands. Some agreed to relinquish recognizing the due process was not followed, some decided to go to court…However, the names of the persons that I just mentioned are those that who agreed to a settlement with the government.

These persons agreed to meeting a settlement with the Government of Guyana after efforts were made to regularize the sale of lands done under the APNU+AFC,” he explained.

Dr Singh said that there are currently a number of matters engaging the attention of the court because of the same issue.  Among those taken to court over the sale of state lands at Peter’s Hall were Attorney-at-Law, James Bond, and former acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NICIL, Colvin Heath-London.

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• A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC), Government, Guyana, Hall lands, Parliament, Peter’s

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