…SOCU sends files for legal advice

SEVERAL persons are likely to be charged soon for the sale and development of the Sparendaam, East Coast Demerara (ECD) land, referred to as Pradoville 2, sources close to the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) told the Guyana Chronicle on Tuesday evening.

The Guyana Chronicle understands that the investigation into the alleged corrupt acquisition of the lands at Pradoville 2 has been completed and police legal advisor Justice Claudette Singh has been asked to provide advice on the matter.

“A thorough investigation has been done and now it is all up to the legal people to ensure that the charges are laid,” the source said, while noting that some 200 persons were interviewed by SOCU.

Interviewees included officials from the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA), the Guyana Lands and Survey Department (GL&SD), the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI), and the Guyana Power and Light Incorporated (GPL). In March, several former government officials under the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) including former president Bharrat Jagdeo, former Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon; and former Ministers of Agriculture, Home Affairs, Housing and Water, Labour and Education, Robert Persaud, Clement Rohee, Irfaan Ali, Dr. Nankishore Gopaul and Priya Manickchand were questioned by SOCU.

In addition to the PPP officials Director of Public Prosecutions, Shalimar Ali-Hack; former Guyana Defence Force Chief of Staff, Retired Rear Admiral Gary Best; and General Manager of the Guyana Gold Board, Lisaveta Ramotar, were also questioned by SOCU on the acquisition of lands at Pradoville 2.

Meanwhile, the State Assets Recovery Unit (SARU) had recommended that Attorney General, Basil Williams, put systems in place to facilitate charges of “misconduct in public office” being laid against Jagdeo and Persaud; former Public Service Minister, Dr. Jennifer Westford; Manickchand; Dr. Gopaul and Rohee.

That recommendation by SARU follows an investigation into the procedures employed prior to the transfer and issuance of prime real estate at Sparendaam, lower East Coast Demerara, to the former government ministers and persons believed to be their friends.

In November 2016, the Ministry of Finance handed over the final reports of the forensic audits done on the Sparendaam Housing Project- Pradoville 2 (Special Investigation of the Central Housing and Planning Authority) to the Guyana Police Force (GPF), thereby paving the way for the GPF to open criminal probes into the matter.

The APNU+AFC coalition government has indicated that it will be prosecuting those found culpable in wrongdoings with respect to the sale of lands at the Pradoville 2 Housing Project.
Cabinet earlier this year had approved the appointment of six attorneys to serve as special prosecutors on several cases, including but not limited to, the range of forensic audits conducted by the APNU+AFC administration when it came into power in May 2015.

The six attorneys are Michael Somersall, Hewely Griffith, Lawrence Harris, Patrice Henry, Compton Richardson, and Trenton Lake.

Forensic audits done on the National Industrial Commercial and Investments Limited (NICIL) revealed that some $257M was spent on development of the Pradoville 2 housing project, and the value of land there should have been $82.8M per acre, instead of the significantly less sum for which an acre was sold.

“Instead of accumulating all the costs associated with the Sparendaam Project — including the market value of the land — in a special account to be applied in arriving at the price to be charged per house lot, NICIL’s Board and Cabinet were complicit in charging the related costs of $257.049M to NCN in the form of equity investment, and to CH&PA in the form of receivables.

The fact that several key Cabinet members are the beneficiaries of the house lots renders it highly inappropriate for the very Cabinet to approve of the charging of the expenditure to the accounts of NCN and CH&PA,” the audit report stated.

The report, which was released by the Ministry of Finance, also noted the use of a “conservative estimate of $985M for the 2009 market valuation of the land on which the Marriott has been constructed prior to infrastructure being undertaken on a similar size land (makes) the total value of the Sparendaam project worked out to $1.242B or $82.8M per acre. This figure should have been used to compute the price per lot. It is not clear: (a) how many lots are involved, and their respective sizes; (b) the basis under which the recipients were selected; (c) how the price of approximately $1.5M per lot was determined; and (d) which entity — NICIL or CH&PA — received the proceeds from the sale of the plots”, the audit report disclosed.