Attorney General Ryan Pinder announced yesterday that the government has set aside $10 million to make land acquisition payments to Bahamian property owners.
Last year the government allocated $17 million to pay down a substantial amount of civil judgements against it. Pinder noted that it excluded payments for land acquisition matters, which is an even more vexing issue than the civil matters.
"The government owes tens of millions of dollars to Bahamians who had their land taken from them for public use, for roads and different things that are public use things, and they have never been compensated for that. In fact they have a constitutional entitlement of compensation. Administration after administration for decades have not paid the renumeration, and it is unfair and it is unjust. I think we can all agree to that," Pinder said while contributing to debate on the 2023/2024 budget in the Senate yesterday.
"I am pleased to announce that we are making immediate payment of $10 million towards land acquisition obligations of the government to Bahamian people at large. This isn't all that is owed. We know that there are tens of millions of dollars owed. But through the assistance of my colleague in the Ministry of Finance, we are able to make an initial immediate payment of $10 million towards it. Not only that, I have the assurance and cooperation from the Ministry of Finance that we will put a proper plan in place to satisfy all arrears owed on property acquisition matters that are largely due to Bahamians across the archipelago.
"This will be an immediate infusion of cash directly into the pockets of scores of Bahamians. No other government before us has taken the initiative to satisfy these claims to Bahamians. This 'New Day' PLP government has taken this on and we will achieve the goal of satisfying those obligations to Bahamians."
Pinder added that the Office of the Attorney General is working toward the regularization of the title of homeowners in Pinewood Gardens, which has long been under dispute with developer Arawak Homes.
"This has been a vexing issue for scores of Bahamians. I am pleased to announce that we have been working diligently and have now provided Arawak Homes with completed files for fifty-five homes, to be conveyed to those Bahamians by Arawak Homes. We continue to work on it and there are 43 files remaining that are being reviewed, completed and verified, to provide to Arawak Homes to complete this exercise. Every week we send new files that are completed and verified for conveyances to be issued to Bahamians," he said.
"I am advised that Arawak Homes is completing the requisite surveys of the properties that have been verified, and we wait on them to complete this exercise in order to close the door on this long-standing issue for hundreds Bahamian homeowners. I encourage Arawak Homes to complete this review expeditiously and provide duly executed conveyances as soon as they can. This is a 'New Day' for the homeowners in Pinewood Gardens, achieving resolution to a vexing issue that the prior government and the prior member of Parliament could not deliver on."
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