— says Opposition Leader has no moral authority to talk about corruption

MINISTER within the Ministry of Communities with responsibility for Housing, Annette Ferguson, has accused Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, of mischievous and very partisan politics.

Minister Ferguson, during a press briefing at the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CHPA), Brickdam, Georgetown, on Tuesday, said Jagdeo claimed she benefitted from three house lots on East Bank Demerara to build her property.

“I have news for Mr. Jagdeo. Anette Ferguson has one house lot allocation, which as a citizen of Guyana I have a right to. I applied for this house lot during the tenure of Mr. Jagdeo’s PPP and like many other Guyanese I was only allocated after 2015,” Minister Ferguson said, while displaying a copy of the title for her house lot.

The minister noted that her plot of land is 0.25 of an acre which is approximately 10,000 square feet.

“Comparing 10,000 square feet to what Jagdeo has is 216,000 square feet and he, Jagdeo, is calling me corrupt! This is a case where the wicked is cursing the righteous, and the word of God reminds us of the devil accusing the brethren, you cannot blame the devil for accusing, since that is his job,” Minister Ferguson said.

Notwithstanding Jagdeo’s critical spirit, Ferguson said 550 Guyanese are on their way to becoming first-time home owners, under the APNU-AFC government.

Minister Ferguson reflected: “I should point out that the price I paid for my lot was based on a pricing system that Mr. Jagdeo’s PPP developed and used for ordinary citizens.

Fortunately, that pricing system did not apply to the Pradoville Privileged whose rate per Sq. ft. was far less that those of the peasantry class. It is public knowledge that under Mr. Jagdeo’s PPP, he paid what amounts to $114 per square foot for his house lot while the ordinary citizens paid $317 for theirs. Remigrants were asked to pay $1,111 per square foot for their plot and Mr. Jagdeo has the gall to call me ‘corrupt’ and talk about ‘corrupt practice’.”

The housing minister said those who desire to promote sound principles rather than on partisan politics will soundly reject Jagdeo and all that he symbolises.

“My fellow Guyanese, any leader worth his salt, would not base his leadership on hearsay. But Mr. Jagdeo is disingenuous in his intentions; delusional in his judgement; deficient in morality; divisive in his politics and disgraceful to the honourable institution of leadership,” Minister Ferguson said.

DISCREPANCIES
Under Jagdeo’s PPP, the minister said allocations were done before an area was “declared”.
She explained that persons were issued with parcel numbers not corresponding to the parcel of land they occupied. These titles had to be recalled and amended. But in order for the titles to be amended, a mutation survey had to be done, which came at a huge cost to the agency.

Minister Fergusons said lands were acquired and distributed for housing development without the proper process involving key stakeholders being observed.

“All of this had to be corrected even as we seek to clear the backlog of more than 25,000 applications. He is hearing a lot of things. I guess he didn’t hear that. Mr. Jagdeo claimed that “the cronies pull in, rake in a big part of it . . . a big part of it. The question is: who are these ‘cronies?’ My fellow Guyanese, is Mr. Jagdeo referring to you, the ordinary citizens, who I’ve been making genuine allocations to; those in need of better living conditions and living standards; those who applied in the early 90s and never received an offer, or is his memory failing and he is confusing the ‘Pradoville Privileged’ with the ordinary single mothers, hardworking fathers and farmers of Regions Six and Two, whose interest was neglected for years by Mr. Jagdeo’s PPP, but are now benefitting from a fairer and more just allocation process?” Minister Ferguson noted.

She said if the ordinary citizens are “cronies” who “pull in and rake in” as Jagdeo claims, then “I wear this as a badge of honour as our President, David Granger has made it clear, under his leadership, every citizen should enjoy the right to housing; he would like to [demit office] … when there is not a single homeless Guyanese. Every Guyanese must have a roof over his or her head. His government aims to create in Guyana, a community of free citizens who own land, who own houses. We are trying to abolish homelessness; we are trying to abolish destitution.”