Court action to be taken against Jordan, Heath-London over land deals - Nandlall
Announcing that civil action will be brought against former Minister of Finance Winston Jordan and former NICIL Head Colvin Heath-London, Attorney General Anil Nandlall yesterday appealed to persons who acquired lands in questionable deals to return them to the state, assuring that no action would be taken against them.
Contacted yesterday by Stabroek News for a comment, Jordan said that he has nothing else to say on the matter and that he has forwarded Nandlall’s release to his attorney to be guided accordingly.
“I will not comment any further, given such development, beyond what I had told you,” Jordan said.
“Let’s say I would not comment any further because a statement was put out by the Attorney General. I have forwarded that statement to my counsel and that is where it stands. Until he purports to do what he said he will do, then I have no further comment to make,” he added.
Jordan had on Friday told this newspaper that the only transaction he can speak to is the one where hotel developers CMEI were given title for 21.096 acres of land and that it was done after he was told by NICIL that the company had met all of the agreed requirements.
Producing a list of eight companies that were vested with lands without full payment, five of which have already returned their lots to the State, Nandlall promised that “No actions would be taken against companies that surrender their allotted lands to the state”.
Details of the eight transactions and those which would have returned their lands are shown in the table below.
The Attorney General pointed out in the release that except in one case, where 10% of the purchase price was paid, a mere fraction of the total, the title was vested by the former Minister of Finance.
“It will be further noted that each of the Title that was vested was done so after the 2nd March 2020 National and Regional elections, which the APNU+AFC Government lost and each of the agreement of sale was entered into after the APNU+AFC Government lost a No-Confidence Motion, moved against them in the National Assembly on the 21st December 2018, and therefore, had no power to enter into agreements of sale or vest Titles, in relation thereto,” the release stated.
The release said that Nandlall sought and received independent legal advice on this matter.
“The advice is that Minister Winston Jordan and Mr. Colvin Heath-London have acted recklessly, in bad faith with full knowledge of the flagrant illegalities, which have resulted in millions of dollars of losses to the State,” Nandlall’s release said as it cited a case from Belize where a former minister of finance was charged for selling lands below market value.
“As a result, the Attorney General will commence civil proceedings to, inter alia, recover the said parcels of land and claim compensation against those implicated, including, Minister Winston Jordan. Additionally, each of these matters will be passed to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Guyana Police Force (GPF) and the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU), for their investigations and any consequential actions which may flow therefrom,” the release added.
On Friday, government announced the termination, with immediate effect, of the services of Heath-London, head of NICIL’s Special Purpose Unit (SPU) which had controversially presided over the disposal of assets of the sugar industry.
Nandlall issued the termination letter to Heath-London, while saying there had been serious failures on his part in relation to land leases.
Heath-London could not be reached for comment by Stabroek News on his termination and had not been available to this newspaper for months on matters pertaining to the sugar industry and a $30 billion bond that had been secured for its rehabilitation.
Heath-London, who acted as Head of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) since the Board’s former Chairman Horace James passed away in January of 2019, had reverted to his substantive position as Head of the SPU in August this year when Radha Krishna Sharma was appointed Interim Chief Executive Officer of the state holding company.
A review of NICIL and the SPU found that two days before the March 2nd general elections, the David Granger- led Cabinet approved the agreement for the sale of some 21.096 acres of land at Ogle earmarked for an ambitious Caribbean Marketing Enterprises Inc. (CMEI) hotels project. The government later issued an order for the transfer of the title although the company failed to meet agreed terms, including the submission of records for due diligence and a 50% down payment. By way of his powers under the Public Corporations Act, then Finance Minister Jordan had made the June 11th, 2020 order for the conclusive transfer of the title.
In February of this year, U.S based businessman Edmon Braithwaite led a delegation of US businessmen here for the unveiling of a double hotel project, at Ogle, which he had said would include an AC Marriott.
It was during the turning of the sod for that project that NICIL had announced an ambitious ‘City of Ogle’ project that would span 800 acres from Ogle to Lusignan and would include two other internationally-branded hotels, a specialty hospital in the form of a cardiology services centre and a housing development similar to the East Bank of Demerara’s Windsor Estates.
“This one has some element of a process but clearly there was undue haste to pass the title over to the purchaser and you would look at the date when the Cabinet approval came and its proximity to the elections, as well as the fact that the vesting order, which constitutes title in law, was issued after APNU+AFC would have lost the election,” Nandlall had told Stabroek News.