Housing employee fired as ministry tackles fraudulent land sales

An ambitious housing drive is unfolding across Guyana with more than 22,000 house lots distributed in about three years.

Amid this housing drive, however, the Ministry of Housing and Water is faced with an increasing number of fraudulent land sales with at least one of its employees implicated in deceitful transactions.

“….we have also been catching persons, unscrupulous persons, who have been trying to (sell) house lots or sell dreams,” Housing Minister, Collin Croal said on Tuesday as he addressed a land allocation exercise hosted at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre located at Liliendaal, Georgetown.

He later revealed that an employee implicated in the fraudulent sale of house lots was dismissed last month.

Because there are many others involved in fraudulent land sales, the Housing Minister said a former senior Police Officer has been employed to investigate questionable land sales and other housing transactions.

While the Housing Ministry attempts to counter this issue, Croal reminded all applicants that payments can only be made to the ministry’s Central Housing and Planning Authority located at Brickdam, Georgetown, or at any of the body’s regional offices.

Additionally, payments can be made at ‘Dream Realised’ outreach activities whenever those are organised by the Housing Ministry. Tuesday’s event was one of those outreach activities.

Croal also urged persons to report questionable transactions and if duped, cooperate with investigations led by the Guyana Police Force.