Commissioner of the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GL&SC) Trevor Benn has been instructed to proceed on 42 days of annualised vacation from tomorrow and to prepare a handover/takeover statement to be given to Enrique Monize, who will be acting in his stead.
The letter, a copy of which was seen by this newspaper, was sent by Permanent Secretary of the Office of the President Abena Moore.
“Please be advised that the administration has taken a decision for you to proceed on your 42 day annualized vacation leave that is due to you with effect from September 18th 2020,” the letter stated.
It also instructed Benn to document the status of all matters pending or in progress for President Irfaan Ali. “Enjoy your vacation,” the letter concluded.
When contacted, Benn emphasised that it is the prerogative of the sitting government to decide on personnel they wish to oversee the agencies they control.
“I expected that once there is a change in government that the new government would want to have control over who are overseeing the agencies, so it was expected,” Benn said.
Asked if he believes he would return to the agency or if he wants to do so at the end of his leave, Benn said it is not for him to decide as that decision is “above my pay grade”.
Pressed further as to whether he wants to return to the job, Benn maintained that it is for the government to decide but later added that he has to “reflect on all of this” with his family and a final decision would be made.
The decision to send Benn on leave comes on the heels of government recently announcing that the powers delegated to the GL&SC by former president David Granger, to allow for the “sanctioning of renting and granting of leases, licences and permission of occupancy of all lands” had been revoked with immediate effect by President Ali.
That announcement was made on August 7th when the government also announced that all public land deals made by the APNU+AFC administration since December 21st, 2018, when a no-confidence motion was passed against it, are to be reviewed.
Attorney General Anil Nandlall, in a statement, had indicated that a review of all leases, licences and permissions to occupy public lands, granted since the 21st day of December, 2018, would be conducted.
He had noted that the APNU+AFC coalition government had only “caretaker status” since the passage of the no-confidence motion against it on that date.
At the time Benn had said that he would have to abide by the new president’s decision. “It is the president’s prerogative to give and take these powers. President Granger had given them to me and it seems now that the current president has taken them. He has the right to decide who gets which powers and who he feels can manage the assets best,” he had said at the time.
Benn had explained that Granger granted the powers to him in an effort to speed up land lease allocations as there has been a number of complaints about the sloth and inefficiency of the agency.
He had that when he took over GL&SC in 2016, he helped speed up the processing of lands for many persons and “turned around the agency” to one that went from revenue generation of $300 million to billions currently.
“We moved from $300 million to a bringing in billions and our budget this year was $1.6 billion from our internal revenue. That happened because all of the decisions were made at GL&SC and we were able to speed up the processing for many, although there are still some persons who will point out that they have been waiting for years,” he had pointed out.
Benn’s current contract comes to an end in March 2022.
