…Jagdeo, PPP officials own thousands of acres
…Benn says applications for leases to persons named were in system before 2015

PERSONS, who Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo, would have listed as benefitting from a massive “land grabbing exercise,” had applications in the system of the Lands and Surveys Commission (GLSC) long before 2015.

“Most of the people, who were named, had applications long before our time…these applications were pending for a long time,” said Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the GLSC, Trevor Benn, in response to allegations from Jagdeo, during a press briefing on Friday.
Jagdeo, at a press briefing on Thursday, had claimed that the GLSC distributed almost 20,000 acres of land to a few persons between last year and now. Jagdeo said the distributions were classic cases of land grabbing.

Among those who Jagdeo claimed benefitted were Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield; Engineer, Charles Ceres; Businesswoman, Muriel Allen; Special Assistant at the State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA), Eric Phillips; and a Member of Parliament.
In the case of Phillips, Benn said he had nothing to do with the approval of land for the SARA official and the approval came long before his time. Similarly, he said Lowenfield’s application was part of an application from four persons, which was headed by Ceres.
The application, which was filed with the commission in 2004 for over 1000 acres of land, was approved back then but, the applicants did not receive the title for the land. “I insisted that it must be issued…nothing was stopping me from issuing the title…but on that specific land we found out that a number of persons were squatting and we have taken steps to cancel that lease for 1000 acres,” said Benn.

In light of the discovery of squatters on the land, Benn said Lowenfield had expressed a desire to be given alternative land and it was granted. “This should not be strange because we have seen in the past, situations where an individual, who had leased lands, was given alternative creole land for lease land that they never occupied and never paid any money for or during the conversion,” Benn argued.

LAND REVOKED BY PPP
He went on to point out that Allen had acquired 2,912 acres of land in the 1980s but, under the previous administration, the land was taken away from her in the 1990s. In retaliation, Allen approached the court and the court instructed the then government to return the land to her.

The court order was issued in 1996 but, the government, at that time, refused to honour the court’s order. Benn said Allen visited him in 2016 and spoke about her situation. After analysing the problem, the GLSC CEO said he insisted that she must get her land. “We are a law-abiding people at this commission and if the court so orders it must be done,” he said, adding that there was a similar case involving the Member of Parliament (MP), who was listed by Jagdeo.

According to the GLSC records, the MP had two parcels of land, one of which was 6,400 acres. The land was taken away by the last government but the Parliamentarian took the then government to court and the court ordered that the land be restored.
The court ordered, in 1997, that the MP should have unhindered access to the land but again the government refused to honour the order. The lease has since been restored and the commission is in the process of restoring the other lease, in conforming to the court’s order.

“So all these individuals were debarred from accessing their land and now we are trying to restore it and it is being called land grabbing,” Benn lamented.
According to Benn, all the persons, who got leases under the current administration, “paid good money for it.”

ABOVE BOARD
Meanwhile, rubbishing claims of corrupt practices at the entity, Benn said operations of the commission remain “above board” and can withstand scrutiny. He said that the commission exercises zero tolerance for corruption.

He said the commission has issued lands to thousands of people so he was surprised that Jagdeo zeroed in on a few government officials, who for some reason, he (Jagdeo) believes should not have access to land. “I have dealt personally with members of the opposition who came to me for help and they were granted leases but he did not mention them.”
“Public officials have a right to apply and be issued with leases, with government land, regardless of which government employee you are,” said Benn, adding that when he was appointed in 2016, he inherited a situation in which a number of people under the previous administration received lands without questions being asked. Among some of the persons who received land from the previous administration was Jagdeo, who Benn said, has thousands of acres of land.

In addition to Jagdeo, Benn said prior to 2015, former ministers of government and several high-ranking government officials also received land.