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New “Lands” Minister Catalogues Compensation Racket
posted (October 17, 2016)
And so while that is the political dimension of the scandal - which has forced a rapid fall from grace for the man who was deputy Prime Minister up to 11 months ago - there is the administrative side of it. Someone has to dig into this compensation case, and the larger racket that was being run with undeserving compensations being awarded. That person in the new Minister of Natural Resources Vanessa Retreage. Speaking at the press conference, she said that everything about this transaction was wrong, and it now has to be made right:...

Hon. Vanessa Retreage, Minister of Natural Resources
"It is clear that the government of Belize did not have the right to issue title to land which it did not own. I have given a deadline for the close of business on Wednesday of this week for the information to be provided to me and then thereafter a final decision will be made as to what action will be taken in relation to this matter."

"And where it is found that monies have been paid out wrongfully, such monies must be recovered. Unjust enrichment at the expense of government cannot be countenance."

After laying out the official position Retreage delved into the details of this dirty deal - which saw four hundred thousand dollars in compensation go to Andre Vega, and another four hundred thousand go to attorney Sharon Pitts. Now most of the details have already been revealed by the media, but Retreage outlined the evidence from the records at Natural Resources. It started in 2011 when Sharon Pitts was wrongly given permission to survey a parcel of land for which title had already been given in 1988:..

Hon. Vanessa Retreage, Minister of Natural Resources
"The file contains a copy of a letter dated third November, 2011 addressed to Sharon Pitts informing her that the permission to survey had been revoked, as the land, quote, is not available to let, end quote. Despite the above, a survey plan done at the request of Ms. Pitts was examined, approved and authenticated by the Lands Department on eight November, 2011. There is no indication on the file as to who authorized what effectively amounted to a cancellation of the original survey done by Mr. Carlton Russell. It is important to understand therefore that from the date this plan was authenticated, whenever a search in the mapping section was done the only survey which would show as being valid would now be the Pitts' survey."

"The minutes of the file further indicate that on 25th November 2011, there were concerns from the commissioner about the availability of this land, but it also indicates that persons within the mapping department within the Lands Department indicated that the land was national land. Sharon Pitts was issued a lease approval on 16th November 2011. There is no sign acceptance on conditions of the lease, but on 22nd November 2011, Ms. Pitts applied for a grant of the said land and it is noted that the application was received by the commissioner of lands and surveys on that said date. On 30th November, the minister approved the sale at a purchase price of $10,569."

"The commissioner did not provide a written report to the minister and made no recommendation for the sale of this parcel of land. The full purchase price was paid on July twenty-fourth, 2012. The minister's fiat grant was presented to the minister for signature on the fourth of September, 2012 and was issued on the twenty-fourth of September 2012. I wish to state here that the minutes of the file I received jumped from minute number seven to minute number twenty-five, so that minute eight to twenty-four is missing from the file. The compensation file to Ms. Pitts. On October twenty-second, 2014, Mr. Philip Zuniga wrote to the Commissioner of Lands and Survey requesting revocation of grants to Sharon Pitts and Hilmar Alamilla. On ninth, December 2014, legal counsel within the ministry advised that an investigation would have to be carried out to determine if this is the same land and if so, government could not have issued title to land which was privately owned since 1988. On fifteenth December, 2014, the acting principal surveyor issued a memo where he actually confirmed that the land was indeed owned by Miguel Valencia and that title was issued erroneously."

"The compensation was stated to be $400,000 for Ms. Sharon Pitts, plus .63 acres of land. the money was paid by way of an initial payment in the amount of $1,000.00 on March 11, 2015, with payments of $50,000 per month continuing until 11th September 2015 when the last payment was made. It is important to note that the valuation reports done by Mr. Castillo, which was used a basis for the payment to Ms. Pitts was dated in 2013, well before the letter was sent to Ms. Pitts and the valuation at that time at 1.7 million dollars."

Eventually, compensation was paid for four hundred thousand dollars. But that's only half the land. The other half went to Vega Associate Hilmar Alamilla for a pittance, who then sold it to Andre Vega. Vega also got compensated for four hundred thousand dollars. Retreage also outlined that case:

Hon. Vanessa Retreage, Minister of Natural Resources
"On December 12, 2012, Mr. Alamilla lodge an application to lease 1.124 acres of national land. This application though dated 10th January, 2012 was not lodge with the lands department until 12th December, 2012. On 15th January 2013, the commissioner of lands and surveys made a recommendation to the minister for the sale of the land to Mr. Alamilla of $6,171. On 16th January 2013, the land purchase approval issued to Hilmar Alamilla with the purchase price being stated at $6,171 was shown to contain a note from the then minister which was dated 23 January 2013, directing that the purchase be reassess for $2,500. On January 31, the purchase price was paid in full. The grant of national land was issued on 7th May, 2013. On December 30th, 2013, title to the land was transferred to Andre Antonio Vega for a sum of $15,000. In July of the same year, the land was mortgage to the Atlantic Bank. The Hilmar Alamilla compensation file - On July 27, 2015, a letter was sent from the commissioner of lands and survey indicating that there was duplication and the commissioner expressed an understanding that Andre Vega was willing to surrender his title to the government for the sum of $400,000. Mr. Vega wrote to the ministry and accepted the offer of the government. Payments were made to Andre Vega commencing on 14 September, 2015 with an initial payment of $100,000 and continued at $50,000 per month until the last payment was made on 8th March, 2016."

"The emergence of this file now means that I must review all compensation files and my CEO has advised me that the issue of compensation payments was being examined by the auditor general and that she concluded her examination of the same late last year, so that we should see a report from the auditor general in relation to these matters."

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