OFFICERS of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Eve Leary, on Thursday, questioned Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Cevons Waste Management Inc, Morse Archer, on the sale of a piece of land purchased from the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission in 2018.
This is in the aftermath of former Commissioner of the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GL&SC), Trevor Benn, being questioned Wednesday last.

Benn said police questioned him about the lease of a plot of land on Mandela Avenue and the sale of land on Aubrey Barker Street on the grounds that he had no authority to engage in such transactions.

Benn is currently before the court for his involvement in another alleged illegal land deal at Ogle, East Coast Demerara and is being investigated for several others including the land sold to Archer and his company.

Archer was informed by a letter from Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, in February that the Government was looking to repossess the land at Mandela Avenue, Georgetown as it was illegally sold to him by the then GL&SC commissioner, Trevor Benn.

Benn on or about December 18, 2018 purported to issue a lease for the said lands to Cevons Waste Management Inc. for a term of 50 years.

Nandlall has already said that Lands and Surveys Commission had no legal authority to lease the land.

The Attorney-General, in his letter, explained that the lands in question were owned by the National Sports Commission (NSC), a body corporate established by virtue of the National Sports Commission Act 1993, which is separate from GL&SC.
He said that the sale was being reviewed on a direct appeal by Archer to President, Dr Irfaan Ali but noted that the transaction remains highly illegal.

Nandlall had said then that, even if the Government decides to act in Archer’s favour and allow the transaction to be regularised, it does not make the unlawful act right.

Archer had previously said that his company followed all guidelines and legal procedures in the purchase of a plot of land that the Government is now seeking to repossess.

He is hoping for a resolution void of any legal showdown. He claimed the land was purchased from the GL&SC in 2018 for $100M of which $80M has already been paid.

The CEO said that, as per the written agreement with GL&SC, he was told that the transport for the land will take three years to be transferred and once that is done, the remaining $20M would be paid. In the interim, Archer explained, that he was granted a 50-year lease by the GL&SC which he is currently paying on simultaneously.

The CEO said he also received a Government evaluation for the land, putting the value at $47M. He said despite this when he approached the Commission, he was told he had to pay $100M.

Additionally, in another matter, the Attorney-General has written to Wilfred Brandford, a board member of the GL&SC under the APNU+AFC administration, asking him to relinquish undervalued lands he obtained weeks after the March 2, 2020 elections.