99-year leases granted rent-free by MMA-ADA at former president’s request

-audit finds

Under the PPP/C’s rule, the Mahaica, Mahaicony, Abary-Agricultural Development Authority (MMAADA) issued rent-free leases for periods up to 99 years at the behest of the president, an audit of its operations has found.

The audit report, compiled by TSD LAL & CO and which was made public on the Ministry of Finance’s website on Friday, covers the period January 1, 2012 to May 31, 2015. Donald Ramotar served as president until mid-May 2015.

The MMA-ADA is a semi-autonomous agency under the Ministry of Agriculture and is governed by a Board of Directors. The authority, which was established in 1978 by Act No. 77 of 1977, is tasked with promoting, facilitating and enhancing sustainable agricultural development in the region through the efficient management of the land resource. It was formed as the executing agency for the construction of all drainage and irrigation works in Region No. 5 (Mahaica/Berbice) on the north-eastern Atlantic seacoast of Guyana and is also responsible for the allocation of State Lands between the Berbice and Mahaica Rivers.

According to the audit report, “policies and good practices were lacking in areas of asset management, inventory management, fuel consumption, lease distribution, [and] rental of premises” during the period under review.

The auditors explain that among their findings was the fact that leases were awarded for 25, 50 and 99 years, with the latter being free in some instances, without any “documented reason.”

“Leases were granted for different periods (25, 50 or 99 years), and for different rates ($1,000, $500 or $200 per acre per year). However, there was no documented basis on which these periods or prices were determined. Additionally, it was noted that some leases were given rent free, however, the reasons for this rent free lease distribution was unclear,” the report states.

In responding to this assertion, the MMA-ADA is reported as telling auditors that prior to 2004, 25year long leases were issued, while after 2003, 50- and 99-year-long leases were issued. The Authority added that “as it relates to the rent, a reduced charge is payable for riverain lands. This was approved by MMA Board while rent free lease were issued at the behest of the President.” There was no indication as to whether these rent free leases were issued during the period 2003 to 2011, when Bharrat Jagdeo was president or between 2011 to 2015, when Ramotar was president.

Further the report notes that while there was a database of details of leases issued, there were several differences in relation to the details in the database and the lease agreements. Of concern was a flawed process for filing and upkeep of lease applications as there were several instances where application forms were not seen in the application file and contact information for lessees was not available while the Authority could not have identified the latest receipts for several lessees, nor the amounts due in relation to these lessees.

The latter failure related to 20 leases which together add up to over 1,600 acres of agricultural land.

In its response, the MMA-ADA explained that all leases issued prior to May, 2001 were destroyed by fire which gutted its main office. Also destroyed were application forms by some lessees. The management, however, has since managed to retrieve photocopies of some leases from lessees, which were available for the auditors to verify at any time convenient to them.