And while the minister said that the initial deal was questionable, it might have happened because - as has become a PUDP mantra - the Lands Department is a "hotbed of corruption." Minister Hyde promised to do a clean up on this corruption and today we asked him how that's going.
Hon. Cordel Hyde, Minister of Natural Resources
"One of the situations, one of the conditions that create that kind of corruption is really when the process moves too slow, when it takes so long for ordinary people to get their leases or their purchase approvals or their titles, that incentivises persons to offer to pay public officers. So the challenge on us is to remove the conditions, to focus on expediting that process and that is what these clinics are about. Coming to people, coming to the communities, bringing the entire ministry to the communities to try and make sure people get their land papers. Now the challenge for us is how do we transfer this same energy, this same compassion, this same empathy, this same desire to help people to all our offices all over the country so that ultimately, ordinary people will get their papers in the shortest amount of time and ultimately no one will feel like they have to go and bribe anybody to go and get their papers. Because it's wrong on both fronts, it's wrong on anybody who goes to offer money and it's wrong on the public officers to accept that money."
