On Wednesday, we told you about the plight of Sherene Garbutt, who got permission to survey a parcel of land in the Malacate area of Independence Village. She surveyed it only to have the land sold to someone else three years later. She said that all she was waiting for was the minister's signature on her lease application, but then she found that it had been bought by Charles Price, the brother of the Prime Minister's driver.
Today we asked Minister Cordel Hyde about it. He explained that that application actually never reached his desk, but that surveying a parcel of land doesn't guarantee that you'll get it. He added though that the land never should have been surveyed in the first place.
Cordel Hyde, Minister of Natural Resources
"As I understand it, as I know it, legally speaking, we give a lot of permission to survey. Oftentimes we tell people that doesn't guarantee you will get the lease or get the purchase price. In instances where a person surveys the land and doesn't get the land and if they approach the ministry and say well how come I didn't get it, we try to work with them, try to give an explanation, try to help them get another piece of land. In the event that happens, because that does happen sometimes, as I understand it in this particular situation, it's swampy land, it's not beachfront land as some people have suggested, it's swampy land surrounded by some bigger parcels of land owned by some big landowners. But it's deep swamp and so I have said to our people we should not have issued a permission to survey in the first place because it's swampy land and we should not have issued purchase price in the second place and on account of that, we have reached out to Mr Price and said to him, please bring back the title and transfer the land back to government. He's agreed to do that and I think they're in the process of doing that either today or sometime soon. And we will seek to make that land into some sort of reserve because it's entirely swamp."
"In the case of that application from Ms Garbutt, I didn't see that application, that did not reach my desk. Now that happens sometimes too."
Reporter:
"The land commissioner told her that it was on the minister's desk."
Cordel Hyde, Minister of Natural Resources
"Well the truth of the matter is that they tell everybody that, everybody who comes and checks on their land, everybody the Lands Department tells them it's on my desk. My desk is full but it's not that full. But they always say that. In this case, she got permission to survey in 2022, she got it surveyed pretty quickly and I think she applied for lease sometime after. But when I checked, that particular file was stuck at inspection all this time so we're talking about 3 years being stuck there, it never reached my desk."
Reporter:
"But how is it that that didn't reach your desk but a man who comes after, his application reaches your desk, you approve the desk and sign a second document to approve purchase? His document seems to have been fast tracked."
Cordel Hyde, Minister of Natural Resources
"Some people apply for lease, some people apply for purchase. In this particular case, this person applied for direct purchase and not a lease."
Reporter:
"And so a lease number was on the application to purchase document, 628/2024."
Cordel Hyde, Minister of Natural Resources
"You are giving me way more details than I recall. As I understand it, he applied for direct purchase, he got a purchase price, he paid a purchase price and he got the title. Ms Garbutt applied in 2022, Mr Price applied in March of last year. And sometime earlier this year, that file came in front of me."
The ministry plans to compensate Garbutt for the cost of the survey and find her a new parcel of land of comparable value, although it may not be in the same area.
