Leader of Opposition McKeeva Bush reiterated his concerns about what he called preferential treatment for Leader of Government Business Kurt Tibbetts and George Town MLA Alfonso Wright of the ruling People’s Progressive Movement by the Land Registry concerning a property transaction.
Mr. Bush first brought the matter to the public’s attention in his National Heroes Day address.
Subsequently, Mr. Tibbetts explained that he and Mr. Wright had been in negotiations for a property, and had a verbal agreement – which was supported by e-mail communications – for its purchase.
The property in question consists of the building and land of the Hampstead Ltd. office supply store, which was severely damaged during Hurricane Ivan, on Airport Road.
When the property seller attempted to terminate the sales agreement because of a higher offer, Mr. Tibbetts and Mr. Wright had a 90-day Restriction placed on the property, which prevented its sale to the higher bidder.
Since Mr. Tibbetts and Mr. Wright did not have a signed contract with the owner of the property, the evidence of their interest in it was an affidavit filed with the Land Registry.
The affidavit was sworn by Mr. Tibbetts, Mr. Wright and Denny Diedrick, however only Mr. Tibbetts and Mr. Wright actually signed the affidavit.
The signatures of Mr. Wright and Mr. Tibbetts were notarised by B. Conolly, most likely Mr. Tibbetts’ assistant Barbara Conolly.
It is the way in which the affidavit was executed, and that Land Registry accepted the affidavit as the only basis for the Restriction, that Mr. Bush finds wrong.
‘I am not complaining that Kurt bought this $1.5 million property or that he and Alfonso have this business,’ he said. ‘I am complaining that he had his political assistant notarise this document without the all the signatures of the people who were swearing the affidavit and that Lands and Survey accepted it with no other evidence from a PPM Minister and a PPM MLA. It’s the procedure I’m complaining about.’
Mr. Bush insinuated in his National Heroes Day address that PPM politicians were being given preferential treatment by certain government departments, an allegation Mr. Tibbetts vehemently denied.
‘My name is not McKeeva Bush; it’s Kurt Tibbetts,’ he said last week. ‘I have never and will never put a civil servant in such a position.’
Mr. Bush said he knew of a case where Land Registry refused to lodge a Caution on a property with similar evidence.
‘They have criticised me on a number of occasions with all sorts of accusations, and this is what they do,’ Mr. Bush said. ‘I am duty-bound to question the ethics of this whole thing. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a disgrace.’
In explaining the transaction, Mr. Tibbetts noted that if the seller of the property or his attorney had any problems with the legitimacy of the Restriction, they could have questioned it with the Registrar of Lands, but they had not done so.
Mr. Bush said there was a reason why the seller did not challenge the restriction.
‘I understand they did not press the issue because they were scared of the Government,’ he said.
Mr. Bush also questioned why Mr. Tibbetts said they had to pay $230,000 more for the property in the end in order to match the second offer for the property.
‘If he had the deal he said he had, why did he pay more?’ Mr. Bush asked. ‘If he had a solid agreement, verbal or written, he shouldn’t have paid more. Something is not right there.’
Mr. Bush also asked why Mr. Tibbetts had not made his partnership with Mr. Diedrick on the deal known when he was explaining the transaction.
‘[The PPM] went far and wide to make people believe that I offered more protection for Jamaicans,’ he said. ‘Now look who he’s in business with: a Jamaican, albeit one that’s been here a long time and a new Status holder.
‘I must question his transparency about who he’s doing business with,’ he said. ‘I must now also question the ethics of the whole thing.’
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