Earlier on in the news, we told you about Government's win against the Ashcroft Alliance in court. That triggered a blustery government statement about PUP corruption. But the Barrow Administration is embroiled in its own moral battle as the land compensation scandal is just starting to break.
10 days ago, documents surfaced which show a questionable land deal between the Ministry of Natural Resources and a company, Ron J Limited. It involves a piece of land on the Placencia Peninsula. Reports are that it is a 1.6+ acre parcel of mangrove land, which is located on the banks of a channel leading to the Lagoon on the west side of Placencia. These documents show that in February 2012, the principals of the company Ron J Limited bought the land for just over 6,300 dollars. Here is the lands Registry Certificate which shows that Ron J owned the land.
Also, you can see here where Gaspar Vega, the then Lands Minister sold the land. Now, such prime land on the peninsula at market value is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, as we will show you, in a short while, but the Natural Resources Ministry sold it for less than 10 thousand.
This piece of land was the only access which nearby landowners had to the lagoon, and it appears that those landowners complained to Government, eventually getting them to buy it back. The Government did so, but ended up compensating Ron J Limited at an exponential profit margin of 1 million dollars. That's right, the company got an over 990 thousand dollar windfall for a parcel of land which they bought for just over 6 thousand dollars, all at the expense of Belizean taxpayers.
It's the kind of deal, which raises immediate red flags after review, and once again, it happened under the watch of the then minister Gaspar Vega. 11 days ago, the Prime Minister was asked about it, and here's what he had to say then:
Mike Rudon, Belize Times
"Sir are you familiar with a transaction, another compensation transaction in which land which was transferred from Gaspar Vega to another party Ron J for $6,000 a little over was flipped shortly after for a million dollars? From $6,000 to a million dollars?"
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"I don't know of the new minister can speak to what you are asking."
Hon. Vanessa Retreage, Minister of Natural Resources
"Mike, I will say that the Ron J Limited is one of the companies that is on the current list of compensation payments. I have not examine the contents of that file as yet, but it is currently on the compensation list. So whether it was transferred in its public/private capacity, I don't know. Because I have not look, but it currently sits on the compensation list. I have actually instructed as the CEO said, payment ceased until we have had an opportunity to look at all these matters."
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"The current minister has told you that she is familiar with the name and that that name is on the compensation list. I don't know sir, I'm not at the ministry of lands and I don't deal with compensation. I explained to your colleague earlier we transfer the annual allocation and that's the last we have to do with it. So I don't know."
The current Minister of Natural Resources confirmed that the Ron J compensation is one of the files currently under review. We checked who are the owners of Ron J and it is registered at number 10 Albert Street, a residential and business address close to Atlantic Bank. The shareholders are persons of Indian descent, and the directors are John Najendran, Sharon Peters and Richard Wilson.
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