Ken Ali

Four prop­er­ties were rent­ed by the Gov­ern­ment be­fore and af­ter the gen­er­al elec­tion for up to five years, at a to­tal cost of some $55 mil­lion. This has prompt­ed po­lit­i­cal and so­cial ac­tivist De­vant Ma­haraj, who made the dis­cov­ery, to ques­tion the wis­dom of sign­ing such cost­ly con­tracts in the midst of a gen­er­al elec­tion. The Min­istry of Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion con­firmed two of the of­fice space lease-rentals on May 20, a third on May 26 and the fourth on May 27. The gen­er­al elec­tion was held on May 24. Ma­haraj re­called that then Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, who was elect­ed Prime Min­is­ter, had rec­om­mend­ed there be no busi­ness deal­ings in­volv­ing the pub­lic purse amid the elec­tion.

"I am not ques­tion­ing the pro­pri­ety of the con­tracts," Ma­haraj stat­ed yes­ter­day, "but the tim­ing, es­pe­cial­ly in light of the fact that there was a regime change." The ma­jor of­fice lease-rental would cost tax­pay­ers $48 mil­lion over the next five years. In a doc­u­ment of May 20, the Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary in the Min­istry of Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion, said the Cab­i­net had agreed to the rent-lease of 12,815.8 square me­tres at Aran­juez Es­tate to ac­com­mo­date the Po­lice Ser­vice. The month­ly rent is $800,000. The fa­cil­i­ty in­cludes park­ing space for 226 ve­hi­cles. The leas­er, Aran 88 Ltd, is be­ing paid at $5.80 a square foot.

The oth­er agree­ment con­firmed on May 20 is at a cost of $2,340,000 over three years. The re­spec­tive prop­er­ty is at 141 Long Cir­cu­lar Road Mar­aval, owned by GAL Hold­ings Ltd. The gov­ern­ment is pay­ing $65,000 a month for 516.5 square me­tres. The rental val­ue is $11.70 a square foot. The prop­er­ty is to ac­com­mo­date Caribbean Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Union. A doc­u­ment from the min­istry's per­ma­nent sec­re­tary on May 26 in­di­cat­ed that a prop­er­ty at 65 Mara­cas Roy­al Road, Mara­cas, was be­ing rent­ed for three years at a month­ly sum of $39,000. The to­tal cost of the arrange­ment is $1.4 mil­lion.

The air-con­di­tioned prop­er­ty will ac­com­mo­date the Po­lice Ser­vice.

McEacha­rane's Rental and Trans­port Ser­vice owns the prop­er­ty. A val­ue of $7.14 a square foot has been placed. An air-con­di­tioned prop­er­ty at 2 Tumpuna Park, Ari­ma, was con­firmed in a doc­u­ment of May 27 from the PS as be­ing lease-rent­ed. The agree­ment is for three years, at a cost of $95,000 a month, or $2.80 a square foot. The build­ing's own­er is list­ed as Tumpuna Park Ltd.