ATTORNEY General, Basil Williams has debunked accusations that government had compulsorily acquired two plots of land on Carmichael Street belonging to Clarissa Rhiel and Beharry Groups of Company Ltd, asserting that any such acquisition could not be accomplished without their knowledge nor without availing them the opportunity to enter into negotiations for purchase of the land. Both the Stabroek News and the Guyana Times have published several stories concerning the issue, with former President Donald Ramotar and ex-AG, Anil Nandlall attacking the government. Williams in a statement on Thursday described these attacks as “puerile and precipitate.” The newspaper also published articles quoting anonymous sources saying that Cabinet has cancelled the acquisition process and ordered Williams to prepare a report on the matter. Williams has since rubbished the reports as false.
In his statement, Williams said the two small plots of land have no building or erections on them and it is apposite to note that the former People’s Progressive Party administration had passed in 2001, the Acquisition for Public Purposes (Amendment) Act 2001, which stated (among other things): “… it shall… be lawful under this Act to acquire land for the proposed construction of a public work or for a public purpose whether or not there is any building or erection on such land.”
“Now I don’t want the Guyanese people to believe that I entrapped Anil Nandlall or his party, but any lawyer worth his salt would first seek to read the relevant law on the subject and not be hysterical after leaping into darkness,” Williams reasoned.
Noting that the relevant law is contained in the Acquisition of Lands for Public Purposes Act Chapter 62:05, Williams said Sections 3-5 enable the minister to declare a public work; empowers the minister by order to authorise the Commissioner of Lands or any other person and their agents to enter upon any land specified in the order for the purpose of surveying or otherwise examine it with a view to the acquisition of the whole or part of it for the construction of a public work.
Section 5 sets out that the authorised person is empowered to enter upon and survey and take levels of any land where the public works are intended to be executed. Williams said one could consider that the provisions of sections 4 and 5 speak to a scoping mission.
Sections 6 of the same law shows that the reports of surveys together with a plan of the land must be presented to the minister and thereafter the minister may enter into negotiations for the purchase of the land or declare it necessary for public work and alter or annul any order so made.
The AG asserted that it is manifest in this legal framework that the first option is to engage the owners on the question of a voluntary sale before resorting to compulsory acquisition. “For the Nandlalls and Ramotars of this world to accuse the Attorney General of compulsorily acquiring the lands in question and blindsighting Mrs Rhiel, evince a palpable lack of knowledge of the law and a penchant for premature eruptions.
Williams stated that Section 8 of the said Act ensures that the owner’s land cannot be acquired by stealth. “When an order is made under section 4 or 6 notice thereof shall be served personally on the proprietor or his attorney if either is resident in Guyana; and if he is not so resident or cannot be found, shall be considered duly served if it is published in the gazette and in one local newspaper and a copy is also affixed upon a conspicuous part of the land.”
Williams said as AG he will endeavour always to follow the letter of the law. “To indulge or engage land owners whose lands are under consideration with a view to their acquisition on the question of purchasing them by private sale, could open one to severe recrimination, if not done under the protection of a section (4) order as was published in the gazette on September 24, 2016.” Williams added that he would have no legal basis to discuss any purchase of the lands if the acquisition procedure under the Act was not triggered and that only a real estate would do that.
The AG had explained earlier that when he entered office, he began making attempts to establish a permanent law reform commission and a law-review unit, but that the current premises could not accommodate those units. As such, he opted to rent a building to house those units, and expressions of interest for that rental had been received. Subsequently however, he was made aware that attempts had already been made by the former Government to acquire the plots. “So the issue of the compulsory acquisition was something inherited from the PPP. So perhaps the problem Mr Nandlall has is that he didn’t get to do the transaction,” Minister Williams had said.
He recalled too that Nandlall had raised the issue in the National Assembly during consideration of the budget and he (Williams) had responded, saying that the evaluation had been done by the Chief Evaluation Officer of the Government. Williams had reminded that the PPP during its term in office had compulsorily acquired several lands, including a large portion on Water Street to facilitate vending. Williams also revealed that a charitable organisation, the Berbice Bharati Saywa Sangha, which operates senior citizens homes in Berbice, had their lands compulsorily acquired by the PPP/C administration in 2000. He said that the former administration had acquired the lands to construct the University of Guyana Tain Campus.