Over EC$33 million still owed to land owners at Argyle

The government still owes over EC$33 million to persons from whom lands were acquired to build the Argyle International Airport (AIA).

But according to the Minister of Finance, that is not the fault of the government, as in the majority of cases, the problem lies with establishing the ownership of the parcels of land in question.

“The majority of the 125 plots are lands which we are trying to ascertain who to pay because there is no deed for the land.

“As of June 7th, the outstanding amount for the lands with deeds was EC$19.5 million, inclusive of interest, while the sum owed on the lands without deeds was EC$13.7 million, inclusive of interest so the grand remaining total is EC$33,109,354,” Camillo Gonsalves told parliament on Tuesday.

The finance minister was responding to a question asked by Arnhim Eustace, member of parliament for East Kingstown.

The question was, “What is the value of the land taken by the Government at Argyle which was used for the construction of the airport and still not yet paid for and when will such payments be made?”
Expounding, the finance minister said that during the construction phase of the AIA, the International Airport Development Company (IADC) and the government adopted a two-pronged strategy in respect of the lands that were required.

Firstly, there were face to face negotiations with the 142 homeowners (built properties) so as to arrive at a mutually agreed price.

“…and by the 30th November 2017, this objective was achieved, and all 142 owners of built properties were compensated at the tune of EC$60,136,672.

“Secondly, in order to allow the IADC to take possession of the vacant lands at the site that were needed for the construction, farm lands and the like…government issued three acquisition orders in April 2008, July 2009 and October 2010 and as of November 30th 2017 on those lands, EC$53,825,827 was paid and there remains about 125 parcels of land for which payment remains outstanding,” Gonsalves revealed.

“The government and the IADC are currently completing a plan to address the settlements of these amounts owed to the land owners. We continue to work to try to ascertain land ownership issues because that has been a very lengthy process in some cases and even though the majority are still without deeds, that number has been falling as we have been working to resolve that issue,” Gonsalves told Parliament.

He added that the government and IADC do not have a date when this issue will be completely settled, but they are hoping to address the details very soon.

In relation to the unsettled payments, it must be noted that in some cases, payment is pending due to litigation, as some land owners have not accepted the price the IADC and the government wants to pay.
SEARCHLIGHT was unable to ascertain how many parcels fall into this category.