Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar told supporters on Thursday the "tentacles of corruption" in the Manning administration reached into almost every transaction and the People's Partnership government is "now bombarded with a virtual avalanche of corrupt deeds."She gave details of one of them - the controversial church at Guanapo.
Former Prime Minister Patrick Manning had stated in Parliament that the state had given the lands for the construction of the church. However it turns out that is not the case and that the lands still belong to the state.
Persad-Bissessar said the Commissioner of State Lands advised Attorney General Anand Ramlogan on Thursday that the three and a quarter acres of lands were never transferred to Juliana Pena, Manning's spiritual adviser. It is because Pena had refused to pay the rent.
The Prime Minister said this raises several questions:
- How did Juliana Pena get Town and Country Planning approval for permission to build on State lands?
- On what basis did WASA and T&TEC provide services without proof of ownership, especially since everyone who applies for such services must provide evidence that they have title to the lands
She also revealed that no one signed the application for approval from Town and Country Planning for the church.
"The part of the application form with the details of the applicants name is blank! The part of the application form with the owner's name is also blank! In fact, most of the form is blank," she said.
Persad-Bissessar revealed more. She said the church was being built on land that was zoned as 'agricultural' and therefore in order to justify the building on the lands the permission was granted for "a comprehensive spiritual centre, including the active cultivation of a garden and orchard".
She said the investigations show that "the PNM cabinet authorised and was driving this project despite the obvious problems", one of which was ownership of the project.
She said things were so bad that officials were writing architect Stephen Mendes who repeatedly told the authorities that he was neither the applicant nor the owner. On May 13, 2010, Mendes wrote Town and Country and rejected all association with the project, she said.
Earlier this year Mendes gave a sworn statement that Patrick Manning was directly involved in planning the project and that the reference to PM in correspondence meant 'Prime Minister' and not 'Project Manager' as Manning had suggested.
Read the story: Manning was directly involved in Guanapo church: Mendes
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