Conflict of Interest? MMA/ADA chairman leased 10,000 acres in Mahaica – documents

The Opposition has raised concerns about a possible conflict of interest situation involving a senior official who has been leased a large plot of land in the Mahaicony/Abary area.
According to lease documents, Mc Agricultural Trading and Investment Service was the beneficiary of 10,609.319 acres within the last year.

That entity is a sole owner business registered to Kelvin Saul.
Saul is the Chairman of the Mahaica-Mahaicony-Abary Agricultural Development Authority (MMA/ADA).
The lands are for agricultural purposes.

According to the lease documents, the plot of land is located on the right bank of the Mahaica River.
Identified as ‘Tract A’, the land is said to be situated between Captain River and Walalbabu Creek.
A copy of the lease has been filed with the MMA-ADA, at Onverwagt, West Berbice and the
Guyana Lands and Survey Commission (GLSC).

Yesterday, Opposition parliamentarian, Harry Gill, asserted that there seems to be a campaign of land grabbing in Guyana, with the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) gathering evidence.
The MMA/ADA is a semi-autonomous agency under the Ministry of Agriculture, governed by a Board of Directors. The Board is responsible for the formulation of policies for the efficient functioning and operations of the MMA/ADA. It has thousands of acres of farmlands it is responsible for.

The authority was formed as the executing agency for the construction of all drainage and irrigation works in Region 5.
The agency is also responsible for the allocation of state lands between the Berbice and Mahaica Rivers.
Over the weekend, Gill called on Agriculture Minister, Noel Holder, to launch a probe into allegations of a massive land grab at the MMA/ADA. He said that it is a clear conflict of interest that someone would be sitting on a board, and benefitting from land that they are allocating.

In a letter to the editor, Gill had pointed to another transaction he said is highly suspicious.
He said that at a time when farmers of Region 5 are being told that their applications for state lands to cultivate rice cannot be processed because no land is available, it is alleged that a Director on the Board of the MMA/ADA, and others, are involved in a massive land grab in an area near Abary, once occupied by the now defunct Livestock Development Company – LIDCO.

He named another director who is also a member of its Lands Sub-Committee.
This committee makes recommendations to the MMA/ADA Board for the approval and distribution of government land to farmers.

He said that sources allege that an application for over 300 acres of land was applied for in the name of a female friend of the director.
The Lands Sub Committee of which the director is a member, recommended the application which was approved by the MMA/ADA Board.
“This in itself is a serious conflict of interest.”

Last week, Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, made it clear that his party which is preparing for general elections on March 2nd, is looking at several suspicious land transactions which is being done at a time when the Coalition Government is in a transition mode to elections.