Nineteen years after former Caroni 1975 Ltd workers were each promised two-acre agricultural plots and residential lots as part of their voluntary separation (VSEP) packages by the then People's National Movement (PNM) government, there is still confusion over the distribution of leases for the sprawling state lands.
The prolonged delay to hand over the lands by successive governments has resulted in thousands of ex-workers being left in limbo, uncertainty, and facing undue hardships after Caroni closed its doors in 2003 due to its high operational costs and mounting debt.
Dozens of the 7,866 daily paid and 1,154 monthly paid employees who accepted the VSEP packages died without receiving what was promised to them. Some of them are experiencing ill health, while others remain disillusioned.
One issue that may have stalled the distribution process involved the Estate Management Business Development Company Ltd (EMBD) having 4,351 residential plots on 14 sites tied up in litigation over contractual disputes. The PM described the $1.4 billion claim against the State as "a reservoir of white collar crime."
And while the farmers continue to play the waiting game, an alarm recently raised by then agriculture minister Clarence Rambharat over a large number of fraud and corruption matters with respect to state lands, has left them in even more despair as they fear their matter may never be resolved or will just drag on for years.
Before tendering his resignation as agriculture minister last month, Rambharat had personally made over 50 reports of these crimes to the T&T Police Service.
Rambharat is expected to take up a position in an entity called the Single Point Land Management Authority to address problems relating to the use of state lands.
Land management will also be brought under the purview of Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley while Minister in the Ministry of Agriculture Senator Nigel De Freitas also has the responsibility for lands.
Worker went to their graves without getting their land
Rakeeb Mohammed who recently protested with former Caroni workers for their leases admitted the lands never benefited those for whom it was intended.
An estimated 76,000 acres, Caroni 1975 Ltd lands span from Caroni Savannah Road to far-flung Woodland. Most of the lands are located in Central, Couva, Claxton Bay and South.
"Initially, the whole VSEP package was rushed down to the union and workers. This package was not offered to the workers. It was pushed down their throats. They were forced to take it," said Mohammed who worked at Caroni for 23 years.
Mohammed, a former chairman of the ex-Caroni Workers' Association, told the Sunday Guardian that thousands of workers are still awaiting their residential leases, while about 1,500 people have not been assigned their agricultural lands.
"Many of them got allocation letters but never obtained their leases. Scores of these workers went to their graves without receiving their lands."
In 2014, Mohammed said, the then People's Partnership government agreed "to transfer the lands which meant a worker could have sold their lot or plot."
He said workers who were too old to work their agricultural plots undersold their lands.
"They got next to nothing."
Depending on the location, one lot of land can fetch upwards of $500,000.
Mohammed, who served as president of the Sugar Boilers' Association, said over the years the lands became a political football. "It has been a blame game between the PNM and UNC while these helpless workers have been caught in the middle. These workers were taken for a ride. And they are still being taken for a ride."
From the onset, he said, there was shoddy infrastructural work.
A man holds a placard during a protest in February by ex-Caroni workers.
'Stress of waiting has deterioration my health'
Having suffered a massive heart attack on March 16, former Caroni worker Trevor Seecharan admitted he could have died without receiving his residential lot in Waterloo.
Speaking from his hospital bed at the Eric Williams Sciences Complex, Mt Hope, Seecharan, 52, blamed the stress of waiting 19 years for his lease which led to the deterioration of his health.
"The frustration and stress led me to this point...getting a massive heart attack."
Doctors have already advised Seepersad who has nurseries and sold ornamental plants not to do strenuous work.
"I know my health is failing and I am really hoping that before I die, I would get the lease so I can pass it on to my children."
Seepersad was also eligible for a two-acre plot in Waterloo which he received a few years ago.
However, there was a myriad of problems with respect to the lands which included poor access roads.
"I tried. I really tried to grow crops and rear livestock but I get thief out. So that didn't work out."
Seecharan said people have been grabbing lands all over the country while the workers are being deprived of what was promised to them.
'This is a never-ending worry after giving your blood, sweat and tears to Caroni'
A stone's throw from Seecharan, 71-year-old Michael Marshall is in the same predicament.
Like Seecharan, Marshall has been waiting 19 years for his residential lease.
"It's overbearing now," he complained, his voice choking with emotions.
The father of two was allocated lands in Waterloo but stated that work on this site stopped more than ten years ago.
"The contractor put down some pipes and everything came to a standstill. The land is overgrown with grass and underdeveloped."
Instead of enjoying his twilight years, Marshall said he constantly wonders if he would receive his land.
The pensioner lamented that daily people are dying from COVID. "I don't know if COVID will take me. You know what it is to die and leave a family behind with nothing after you gave your blood, sweat and tears to Caroni? This is a never-ending worry," Marshall said.
Ex-Caroni workers protest in February for lands promised to them.
'All we are getting is promises'
Pensioner Wayne Holder has been waiting two decades for a residential lot in Exchange II, Couva.
Holder, 65, said he was fed up with holding on to sign his lease.
Having worked in the sugar company for 13 years, Holder said all the workers have been receiving are "promises which is a comfort to a fool."
Leases outstanding
A 2019 Public Accounts (Enterprise) Committee report which examined the audited financial statement of Caroni 1975 Ltd for the years 2010 to 2018 stated that 4,351 residential plots on 14 sites were in litigation with the EMBD and at a standstill.
The 108-page report stated that of the 6,005 former workers who had received two-acre agricultural lots 1,200 workers had failed to come forward, despite extensive advertising.
Of the 7,514 ex-workers who applied for residential lots 4,274 leases were handed out in 16 sites with 230 applications being deemed incomplete.
Although 7,514 workers had applied for residential lots, the report stated, the Government had extended the VSEP and EMBD was able to make 8,855 lots available.
"Some of the commitments required delivery of the residential service lots and agricultural plots to be undertaken by the EMBD, which has stalled due to contractual disputes, which have themselves been prolonged due to being taken to the courts over which Caroni (1975) Limited has no control. There was no evidence of an initial assessment of the risks that may arise and no risk mitigation strategy in place to deal with farmers who have not come forward to claim agricultural lands," the report concluded.
Through a decision by Cabinet in 2008, EMBD was responsible for developing 17 agricultural and 30 residential sites. EMBD was also given the responsibility to handle the leases for the lands.
Last month, Rowley had stated that the pursuit of civil claims was in the excess of $400 million and over $1 billion in contractor claims against the EMBD.
"I tell you this is so that you can be aware that one of the things we were dealing with in this country is a huge reservoir of white-collar crime left there by the UNC or continuing," he disclosed while speaking at the PNM meeting in San Fernando.
The PM said the UNC was desperate to return to government to bury this.
Rowley said one EMBD contractor was awarded a contract for $34 million and the figure increased by $300 million.
He said the former Cabinet approved $400 million in contracts in July 2015, the contractors claimed to have worked in August and by September 7, 2015–election day–all $400 million was paid.
On Friday, Leader of Government Business in the House Terrence Deyalsingh said that more than 4,000 residential and agricutural leases remain outstanding. He said 3,818 residential and 577 agricutural leases were still to be issued.
Protestors holding placards during a protest in February by ex-Caroni workers.
Farmer swindled $4,500 by COSL officers
Couva farmer Sheryl-Anne Rampersad-Sammy broke down in tears as she related how she was recently swindled $4,500 by employees of the Commissioner of State Lands (COSL) which is now the subject of an investigation by the Fraud Squad.
Explaining how she was defrauded, Rampersad-Sammy said her husband, Ganess Sammy and brother-in-law Kadhan Sammy began squatting on 20 acres of Caroni lands in Basta Hall over two decades ago. The land, she said, was used to rear livestock.
Rampersad-Sammy said both men sent in applications to the COSL and Caroni seeking approval to utilise the land but never got a response.
Her brother-in-law eventually died and her husband became bedridden after suffering a stroke.
In a bid to continue the farm, Rampersad-Sammy said she wrote the COSL seeking authorisation to use the land. "I never got a reply."
However, a few months ago, she said a man started encroaching and blocking off a large portion of the farm which led to a feud.
The EMBD and a female COSL field officer (name called) responded to the land dispute earlier this year. The man was asked to shift his fence. The field officer did a follow-up visit two weeks later.
"That's when my troubles began. The officer told me that in order to gain access to the land without the man harassing me I would have to get a status document which would cost $4,500."
Rampersad-Sammy said she was told the status document would fast track the regularisation process to obtain security of land tenure.
"She asked me to send my location via WhatsApp to another field officer (the name given) to do the job. At the time, my husband was sick and I had to sell a cow to raise the money."
Two weeks later, the document was dropped off by the two officers who collected the cash payment.
Rampersad-Sammy said the document looked like a surveyor's plan with drawings of boundaries.
"I really couldn't understand the document and the officer promised to return to explain it to me, but she never showed up."
However, she said the land dispute intensified in February and another COSL officer came to investigate. "When I showed the officer the document she told me it was useless."
The officer promised to report the matter to her superiors.
Days later, Rampersad-Sammy was asked by Fraud Squad officers to visit the Land Management Division on March 17 for questioning.
The next day officers also visited Rampersad-Sammy's farm and seized the document and her cell phone which had WhatsApp messages between her and the officers.
Her son also gave the police a statement.
Last October, Rampersad-Sammy said she obtained a letter from COSL informing her that she was illegally occupying the land.
Questions were WhatsApped to COSL Bhanmati Seecharan regarding this matter, but she failed to respond.
Bharath: Lack of oversight and checks and balances
During his tenure as food production minister, Vasant Bharath said a lot of people wanted agricultural land. Bharath said the ministry had a policy that only when they identified a particular block of land, they would parcel it out and advertise it to the general public for agricultural use.
"I thought that process was archaic, very lethargic and certainly not confluent with the policies I had put in place with regard to accelerating the agricultural thrust in T&T in growing more food."
Bharath said he along with technocrats from the ministry began searching for agricultural lands to distribute to farmers. As a result of that initiative, Bharath said he handed out over 4,000 acres of land to farmers across the country.
"It was the largest distribution of land since 1966. The process was supposed to have continued whereby we would continue to identify parcels and then have a structured way of ensuring it went to the right people."
The agricultural leases, Bharath said, were farmed out to the private sector for efficient delivery.
"We got a blanket cost for preparing a lease and any private attorney who could have prepared the lease we gave it to them."
He thought this seamless and effective process would have continued.
Instead, Bharath said, the system currently in place reflects a lack of oversight of state lands and its employees.
In addition, he said, the ministry has not taken hold of its main assets–state lands–to find out how much land they really have and the location. "Once you leave it laying around somebody would take it."
Bharath said that the legal processes in the ministry have been too slow making it easy for people to commit fraudulent acts and get away with it.
The prevalence of land fraud and corruption, Bharath said, clearly demonstrates there has never been "a properly structured plan" to deal with Caroni 1975 Ltd lands.
Bharath believes land fraud is not an overnight issue and was happening even prior to him being in office. "But I don't think it was prevalent as it is now because people have become almost emboldened that they have gotten away with it once, twice, three times and it has just gotten worse."
He said Rambaharat picked up on the fraud and corruption only to "realised it went a lot deeper."
Bharath said he would not discount that former senior officials may be involved in land fraud.
"There have been whispers in the past about it. A lot of what is happening could not have taken place, without I think, in some instances, the collusion with high officeholders."
Agriculture Ministry in the process of compiling requesteinformation
On March 29, the Sunday Guardian emailed a list of questions to Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries corporate communications manager Dominic Hinds regarding the outstanding leases.
Hinds acknowledged receipt of the questions on March 31 stating "the ministry will respond once we ascertain the relevant information."
On Wednesday, Hinds stated the ministry was still in the process of compiling the requested information and the response will be forthcoming once completed.
Among the questions asked were: How many residential and agricultural leases were distributed since the closure of Caroni 1975 Ltd, and how many sites remain outstanding for distribution? What is causing the delay in the distribution of the outstanding leases and has the ministry set a time line for the distribution of the remaining leases?
Calls to the president of the All Trinidad General Workers' Trade Union Nirvan Maharaj went unanswered while a WhatsApp message was not read.