Ministry says it upholds transparency in land sales |15 June 2005
This was said Tuesday June 14 by the Minister for Land Use & Habitat, Joel Morgan, when he was giving clarification on what he described as misinformation published by Regar on June 3 and June 10, surrounding the sales of land to his Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Sayed Al-Nayahan, the President of United Arab Emirates and to Mrs Sarah Zarqani-Rene, the wife of former President Albert Rene.
The articles published in Regar allege that the government has been selling state land for a mere R1.00.
Minister Morgan said the government strongly deplored the allegations and innuendoes made by Regar and their attempt to distort facts to mislead the public.
"We feel this is cheap politics and we want to re-assure the public that the government of President James Michel will continue to act with transparency and accountability," he said.
Explaining the sale of land at the former Tracking Station site at La Misère to Sheikh Al-Nahayan, Minister Morgan said four plots of land (parcels B2454, B2455, B2456 and B1596) were sold with the government collecting US $500,000 (approx. R2.5 million) in total for the whole transaction.
He explained that parcel B1596, which is the prime land of the lot, was transferred to the Housing Finance Company (HFC) after it was repossessed from GIBC (Global Investment Business Corporation) for breach of contract.
The government, he said, retained the three other parcels surrounding the main property, because they were mainly escarpments supporting the prime land and had very little development potential. Hence, he said, when Sheikh Al-Nahayan presented an offer to purchase all four parcels, the transaction was effected in two parts.
HFC transferred the main property it owned and the government the three subsidiary ones and the whole deal was worth US $500,000. Mr Morgan said the R1 nominal fee appearing in the transaction, is simply a technicality to simplify the process as the properties were under two different ownership.
Minister Morgan said there are at the Land Registrar, further documents, other than that published in Regar, to bear out the whole US $500,000 transaction.
The Sheikh, he said, was exempted from paying stamp duty at government's discretion.
Asked about the possibility of making transactions of prime land known to the public in good time in future to avoid controversy, Minister Morgan said in normal diplomacy a certain level of discretion and confidentiality is maintained when there is a private transaction between two governments or between two heads of state.
Furthermore, he said, the land was purchased by the Sheikh for personal use and not for commercial purposes, which otherwise could have been publicised.
Explaining the 89 square metres of reclaimed land sold to Mrs Rene on La Digue, Minister Morgan said the transfer was only technical, as she had legal rights on the land.
He said the transfer was done to regularise the reclamation made by Mrs Rene on a strip of land, which stretches up to a retaining wall done to protect from erosion the property she had previously bought from government.
Minister Morgan said in that particular case the technical transfer for R1.00 is a normal practice, pointing out that hundreds of properties have been transferred in this manner. He said normally, land reclaimed by a proprietor is transferred in this manner, after it has been surveyed and registered in the state's ownership.
Mrs Rene purchased two strips of land from the government in the same area bordering the shore in 1999 to 2000, namely parcel LD 1110 comprising 87 square metres for R6,900 (at a rate of R79.30 per square metre) and parcel LD1112 comprising 385 square metres for R36,000 (at a rate of R93.50 per square metre).
Minister Morgan said the rates at which the properties were sold to Mrs Rene were higher when compared to the R45 to R60 per square metre of land sold under the Land Bank scheme to individuals.