Finance Minister Ardwell Irion.
Minister Egbert Doran.
~ Doran believes it was done by design to ‘create confusion’ ~
PHILIPSBURG--A hand-written note from a former commissioner for land swap with no supporting legal documentation; promissory letters, promissory e-mails, notes on an old paper with a signature, and word of mouth promises given to persons to occupy government land with no documentation are some of the situations that exists as it relates to government’s long lease land.
Finance Minister Ardwell Irion believes some families had been duped with some of these situations, while Minister of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure VROMI Egbert Doran said in his opinion the situation seemed to have been “done by design to create confusion in the future and not looking out for what may come.”
Irion and Doran alluded to the challenges in response to a question on the efforts to collect outstanding “Erfpacht cannon” fees for long lease land during last Wednesday’s Council of Ministers press briefing.
Irion said this process is continuing and government is in the process of adding two legal persons to a task force to address the matter. He said the effort is not just about “going after” persons who owe, but also about what the minister considers new revenue in some areas.
In September last year, Irion had said that the Ministries of VROMI and Finance have put a “small team together” that will be looking into those who have not been contributing their fees for government leased land indicating at the time that “We want to make sure that everyone is paying their fair share.”
During last Wednesday’s press briefing Irion highlighted the situation facing some families. “There is one case for example, of a case that has not been handled in at least over 15, 20 years and it was not properly done and persons are living there, there were purchases that were made, but deeds and so forth were not given out properly. So, these issues now also require legal support,” Irion explained.
“Unfortunately, we also do not have a head of Domain [Affairs – Ed.] at the moment so we definitely need all hands on deck to support the acting department head so we added two legal [persons] to this team to be able to answer these questions and also I believe two other temps. So, the task force, I would say, is ramping up now. And just to be clear, it is not just about going after, let us say what is owed, but there is also a lot of legal issues in regards to long lease land and persons for example – a person, for example, had a letter from a Commissioner in 2006 or 2004 that says yes you can make this land swap and no documentation was ever done. So, a swap was made, persons stayed on this land for years and now there is no documentation, for example. So, these are things we have to go and regulate and solve and so forth. So, it is a bigger project than we even anticipated at the beginning, but it is a project [that is] worthwhile.”
Doran said coming into the VROMI Ministry, he realised that there was a structural problem in the Department of Doman Affairs. He said while under the current setup there is a department head, a policy advisor, one senior staff member and three junior staff members, in his opinion it has to be opposite where there are three senior staff members and one junior staff member. “That in itself has proven to be a problem over the years that is why over the years there [are] so [many] situations that need to be corrected,” Doran said. “Some people have promissory letters, promissory e-mails, word of mouth, some of them on an old paper just written down notes and a signature and sometimes you cannot even make out if it is legitimate or not. So, we have a lot of serious issues with respect to Domain Affairs. If you ask my humble opinion, when you look back at some of those things, I would be bold enough to say it was done by design to create confusion in the future and not looking out for what may come,” Doran indicated.
“However, we are here now, we have to deal with it and that is the reason why we brought on two legal minds to help in fixing and rectifying these situations. I know there is a lot of backlog. I know there is a lot of frustrations out there because I get e-mails and also calls every day on particular situations, but step by step we are working on them and we are doing everything to the best of our abilities.”
Doran said he decided to resume a public day once or twice a month, depending on the time schedule, starting next month. He said sometimes fixing an issue can be done via a simple conversation, helping out people or by paying a little attention to it. With the addition of the legal minds, assistance from the task force in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, a full plan is in place to correct these situations.
Irion urged those with outstanding long lease fees to go in and pay and those who realise that they have documentation issues where persons may have, for example, received a letter from a politician in the past, but nothing has been regulated to go in and get it resolved. “We have had a case where this letter was given from a politician in the past, a commissioner in the past and nothing was ever regulated. Actually, I have seen at least two or three cases like that and it is very unfortunate that these families were basically duped and now 15 years later or whatever things were not done properly,” Irion said.
