RTC News received the following from the AG’s Chambers On 13 March 2012.
The statement reads, the Turks & Caicos Islands Government served civil proceedings on the Progressive National Party seeking the recovery of the land upon which the PNP Headquarters is constructed, together with damages. The claim arises from the PNP’s trespass following its construction of the PNP headquarters on Airport Road, Providenciales on Crown land to which it had, and has no title.
After construction of its headquarters in 2005/6, the PNP subsequently appointed a management agent, Provident Management Services Ltd to manage the property. During the last administration, Provident sub-leased six offices in the headquarters to PNP MPs for a total of $465,083.61 over approximately three years, which was paid by the Government. The Government seeks the return of that sum, to which Provident was not entitled together with other damages.
The Government seeks a number of remedies for the trespass:
- damages for the PNP’s trespass on the land, based on a reasonable annual rent until possession of the land is returned to the Crown;
- the repayment of the $465,083.61;
- an order that the headquarters are pulled down and destroyed;
- damages for returning the land to its former state; and
- interest and costs
Attorney General Huw Shepheard commented: “When the current administration first became aware last year that the PNP’s headquarters had been built on Crown Land to which the PNP had no title, my Chambers wrote to the PNP setting out the claim that the Government had. It had been our hope that matters could be settled amicably without the need for proceedings. Unfortunately, discussions with the PNP have not been successful. In those circumstances, the Government has been left with no choice but to bring these proceedings for trespass and damages to recover this plot of Crown land and what is properly owed to the Government”.
