Former housing minister Dr Roodal Moonilal has described the lawsuit being pursued by the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) against individuals involved in the valuation and sale of property purchased by the HDC at Eden Gardens, Freeport, as obscene.
He also described it as a “naked and callous piece of political witch-hunt”.
His comments come one day after Minister in the Ministry of the Attorney General Stuart Young said that apart from the individuals named in the lawsuit, Government would go after other individuals who may have obtained money through fraudulent means in the matter. Young said this at a media conference on Friday where he discussed Government’s drive of “following the money”, saying it had unearthed further information possibly linking other individuals to the matter, which may also include “big fish”.
Young detailed some aspects of the civil suit filed in the High Court on June 28, which raised issues over why the value of a property purchased by the HDC at Eden Gardens in Freeport increased by more than $100 million. The claims against the defendants include bribery, a breach of fiduciary duty and breach of contract. Allegations of a $50,000 bribe being paid to a public servant to inflate the value of a 50-acre parcel of land at Eden Gardens, originally valued at $52 million, were also raised in the lawsuit.
The claim comes eight months after Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi initiated legal action against the defendants on allegations of corruption, but the document was only unsealed last Wednesday.
During the press conference, Young said he expected accusations of political witch-hunting and a lot of other crimes, which were meant to “distract the population away from the real issues”.
Moonilal also said Young made no reference to the fact that the People’s National Movement (PNM) already reported that matter to the Integrity Commission which, he said, found no breach of law.
“He confuses buying bush land with developed lands.” Moonilal also accused Young of prejudicing the legal matter by embarking on a public prosecution.
“This is tantamount to misbehaviour in public office and I intend to take this further.” Asked how he intended to take the matter further, Moonilal gave no specific details but said Young should face the consequences of making “rash and reckless pronouncements in public”.
“He has quickly imaged himself as the PNM schoolyard bully.” “Minister Young should be concerned with how a $48 million contract from the HDC went to a company with no track record of building houses but linked to a government MP,” Moonilal said, referring to a contract awarded to contractor Cedric Burke, by the HDC.
Earlier this week, Moonilal called on the HDC to say whether Burke had experience building houses.
“There is also a matter of his (Young’s) interference in state enterprises and more will be said of this in the next few days.”