– Jagdeo had refused to approve application
-President can revoke lands

MORE than a year after launching an investigation into the Red House lease agreement initiated under the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Government, the Attorney General’s Chamber is now reporting that the agreement is invalid. In a detailed statement issued on Wednesday, the Attorney General’s Chamber, headed by the Legal Affairs Minister Basil Williams, said that on March 30, 2012, the Red House lease agreement was initiated without the approval of the President, in contradiction of Section 10 of the Lands Department Act Chapter 59:01. “There was no formal approval by the President of the Day, nor the National Trust, rendering the lease invalid, and a nullity in law. The President can properly revoke it,” the Attorney General’s Chamber stated, while further contending that the lease was “birthed in darkness to hide its unlawfulness from the scrutiny of justice.
In making its case, the Attorney General’s Chamber pointed to several facts.
It was explained that on March 21, 2000, the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre Inc. (CJRCI) was incorporated by Janet Jagan, Nadira Jagan-Brancier and Donald Ramotar as “a not-for-profit company” with the aim of establishing a library and research facility to contain the books, records and documents owned by Cheddi Jagan. It was in that year that a lease between the Government of Guyana, the National Trust, and the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre Inc was drawn up but was not executed.
The Attorney General’s Chamber further pointed out that on May 3, 2006, the former President Donald Ramotar, who was then General-Secretary of the PPP/C, had applied to the Commissioner of Lands and Surveys for a lease of the Red House lands on behalf of the Resource Centre. Although a file was opened, approval had not been granted and as such the application was re-submitted in 2010. “On January 11, 2011, this re-submission was also not approved as there is no evidence of any signature of the President on the purported schedule, only those of Doerga Persaud, then CL&S and the Manager of Land Administration Mr. Menzie,” the Attorney General’s Chamber stated.
However, on March 30, 2012, a lease entered by the Commissioner of Lands and Surveys on behalf of the Government, and Ralph Ramkarran SC. on behalf of the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre Inc. was issued under Section 10 of the Lands Department Act, Chapter 59:01. The lease agreement, for the plots of land in Kingston, Georgetown, has a duration of 99 years at a cost of only $1,000 monthly. This adds up to $12,000 per year and $1,188,000 over the 99-year period.
However, the Attorney General’s Chamber is contending that the Red House lease is void. It was pointed out that Section 10 (1) of the Lands Department Act Chapter 59:01 states that “Government Lands shall only be rented or sold with the sanction of the President and on the terms and conditions determined by him.” “This means that the President of Guyana must approve the Lease,” the Chamber further stated.
It was noted too that given the fact that the Red House was established under the National Trust of Guyana Monuments Register as a Public Building/National Monument/Heritage Site, approval for transfer, mortgage or lease must come from a Minister of Government in accordance with Section 3 (1) of the National Trust Act Chapter 20:03.
“It is submitted that there is no evidence of a formal approval by the Minister/President to lease the “Red House” a Public Building/National Monument/Heritage site to the CJRCI. The unsigned draft lease agreement of 2000 suggests a disinclination on the part of the Minister/President to approve such a transaction,” the Attorney General’s Chamber stated.
In 2015, Minister of State Joseph Harmon had indicated government’s intention for the ‘Red House’ to be soon returned to the people of Guyana. He had shockingly revealed to the nation via the National Assembly that the former PPP/C administration had privatised ‘Red House’, otherwise known as the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre. Subsequent to that revelation, the matter was referred to Williams with a clear direction that he is to examine all the ways in which the lease can be terminated, resulting in the ‘Red House’ being returned to the people of Guyana. Harmon had said that the building must be taken out of the hands of a company to which government feels it was unreasonably transferred. Now that the transaction has been deemed null and void, it is highly likely that the President will use the powers vested in him to revoke the lands.