Renu­ka Singh

The Min­istry of Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion was un­able to pro­vide a copy of the draft lease be­tween the State and the fam­i­ly of At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Faris Al-Rawi.

In ac­cor­dance with a sec­ond Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion Act (FOIA) re­quest by Fix­in T&T’s head Kirk Wait­he, on Fri­day evening the Min­istry of Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion pro­vid­ed an un­dat­ed, un­signed copy of its lease tem­plate but not an ex­act copy of the draft lease be­tween the State and the Na­hous fam­i­ly which owns #1 and #3 Alexan­dra Place.

The lease doc­u­ment that the min­istry did pro­vide car­ries the year 2019, names cur­rent Pres­i­dent Paula-Mae Weekes as the lessee.

The FOIA re­quest asked for a copy of the draft lease which was sup­posed to date back to 2010 when the State first en­gaged Al-Rawi’s fam­i­ly for the rental of the build­ing.

The copy of the draft lease that was sent to Wait­he is un­dat­ed and un­signed and car­ries a date of oc­cu­pa­tion as Au­gust 2016 with a three year term at a rate of $600,000.

One Alexan­dra Place has housed the Min­istry of Pub­lic Util­i­ties since Sep­tem­ber 2016 and ac­cord­ing to the lease doc­u­ments, the lease is set to ex­pire next month.

This min­istry is re­spon­si­ble for the lease pay­ments to Al-Rawi’s fam­i­ly.

The draft lease al­so states that the agree­ment is be­tween N.J Na­hous In­vest­ments and Emeris Gar­raway-How­ell, act­ing com­mis­sion­er of state lands.

On Sun­day, Guardian Me­dia re­port­ed that there was no for­mal lease be­tween the State and Al-Rawi’s fam­i­ly for the mul­ti-mil­lion dol­lar rentals at Alexan­dra Place.

Ac­cord­ing to re­ports, the State has paid over $165 mil­lion dol­lars in just un­der ten years for #1 Alexan­dra Place but on­ly be­gan oc­cu­py­ing the first space in 2016 when Gov­ern­ment moved its Min­istry of Pub­lic Util­i­ties to #1 Alexan­dra Place.

In 2019 the Gov­ern­ment moved the Of­fice of the Chief Per­son­nel Of­fi­cer (CPO) to #3 Alexan­dra Place.

The oc­cu­pa­tion of the two spaces oc­cured even as the leas­es are still be­ing rat­i­fied.

Wait­he sent an FOIA re­quest to the Min­istry of Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion back in March and ac­cord­ing to the min­istry’s re­sponse, the for­mal lease is still out­stand­ing.

In the doc­u­ments pro­vid­ed to Guardian Me­dia, Wait­he asked for copies of th draft deed of lease for #1 Alexan­dra Street prop­er­ty, copies of all cheques for leas­ing/pay­ments for prop­er­ty lo­cat­ed at #1 Alexan­dra Place and copies of re­ceipts re­ceived for pay­ments made for the leas­ing/rental prop­er­ty lo­cat­ed at #1 Alexan­dra Street.

“Please be ad­vised that a draft deed of lease has been pre­pared but fur­ther clar­i­fi­ca­tion is be­ing sought be­fore fi­nal­i­sa­tion and re­view by the Com­mis­sion­er of State Lands,” the FOIA re­sponse to copies of the draft lease.

With re­gards to the re­quest for copies of pay­ment and re­ceipts for #3 Alexan­dra Street, the Min­istry of Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion clar­i­fied that the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al did not par­tic­i­pate in the dis­cus­sions for the rental arrange­ment.

The min­istry said that “the lease/rental prop­er­ty lo­cat­ed at #3 Alexan­dra Street for a pe­ri­od of three years at a month­ly rental of $575,000 plus VAT,” the re­sponse said.

“No lease/ rental agree­ment has as yet been ex­e­cut­ed for #3 Alexan­dra Street, St Clair and no at­tor­neys have yet been in­volved in the leas­ing/rental of the prop­er­ty,” the Min­istry of Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion said.

Guardian Me­dia was able to con­firm that up un­til Wednes­day, no for­mal leas­es ex­ist.

In May, dur­ing the Mid Year Re­view, Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert added an­oth­er $2 mil­lion for the fit out of the space for the of­fice of the Chief Per­son­nel Of­fice.