Ramesh says state paid Monteil family $4M for Tobago lands

Tabaquite MP Ramesh L. Maharaj told the House of Representatives Wednesday the government has paid $4 million a "former high official of the PNM" for lands acquired by the State to build the Mason Hall Secondary School in Tobago.

The high official he referred to is Andre Monteil, former treasurer of the governing People's National Movement (PNM).

Monteil was prominently featured in the latest international corruption index prepared by transparency International.

Read the story: Transparency International highlights Monteil scandal...

Maharaj asked if the purchase was a case of "favouritism". He also asked whether any of the other 14 owners, whose lands were acquired around the same time, were also compensated.

Maharaj said if only the Monteil lands were paid for the matter raises questions of nepotism, inequality of treatment and patronage.

Diego Martin West MP Dr Keith Rowley also raised the issue when he spoke earlier on a land acquisition bill, noting that the state had acquired lands for various purposes from hundreds of persons and "they are just waiting there, hoping that some day the fairy would come and pay them".

Rowley said, "In many cases the owners have died...the Government has use of the land, the heirs are not paid because it gets harder as you go down the line and ... the thing just drags on and on and on," he said.

Rowley recalled the Land Acquisition Act he took to Parliament in 1994 was supposed to solve the problem because it provided for 80 per cent payment once the state took possession of the land with the rest paid in "a reasonable time frame".

Rowley said the state took possession of Adelphi Lands owned by the Monteil family 10 years ago to build the Mason Hall Secondary School "and the fact that it was only now coming to the Parliament should demonstrate clearly that the intent of the 1994 act has not been met".

Labour Minister Rennie Dumas said monies were paid to the Monteil family for the purchase of lands under private treaty.

He did know how much the government paid but stressed that the arrangement for those lands had nothing to do with real estate acquired under the Land Acquisition Act.