Trevor Benn Sets the Record Straight

As was previously reported on the front page of Kaieteur News, “Lands and Survey boss, Trevor Benn bought $25M Prado for $2.5M from his own workplace.” The boss himself wrote a letter to the editor refuting the headline on the front page of Kaieteur News (KN).

The letter to the editor stated how Trevor Benn went about purchasing the Prado vehicle. Mr. Benn clarified that the vehicle was purchased for $11M and not $25M, as was noted in the Kaieteur Newspaper.

It is of the impression that someone is trying to ‘distort the facts’ and ‘tarnished his reputation,’ but he threatens legal action if the story is not retracted.

The Lands and Survey Commissioner, Trevor Benn, was served with a vacation letter from the President’s Office, signed by the Permanent Secretary, Abena Moore dated September 17, 2020.

Mr. Benn was asked to prepare a statement to be given to Mr. Enriqe, who is now the acting commissioner.

“Please document for His Excellency the status of all matters pending or in progress”.

Trevor Benn held this position since 2016 under the former administration, APNC+AFC. The letter did not state the reason for the 42 days of vacation leave.

Trevor worked as a Programme Analyst at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and is one of the founding members of GuyberNet (A Global Sustainable Development Information and Training Centre) for youths in Guyana.

Dear Editor,

Permit me to respond to the Kaieteur News front page article dated 24, September 2020.In doing so I wish to reiterate the under mentioned:

Since my return to the public service in 2016 I have made myself available to the media, always a phone call away. Kaieteur has made very good use of my accessibility over the years. It is surprising, indeed disappointing therefore, that Kaieteur that news would publish such a defamatory article without first contacting me. Need I say that the practice of public officials purchasing vehicles from their place of work is age old. Most recently the retiring head of another semi autonomous agency benefited from a similar arrangement. Did Kaieteur news publish this information? The answer is a clear no, and we know why.

Regarding the issue at hand, a 2015 model vehicle was purchased by the Commission at a value of just over eleven million dollars $11,000,000.

The vehicle policy of the Commission allows for a vehicle to be assigned to each manager of the Commission. Each manager is given an option of purchasing the vehicle after three (3) years at the depreciated value. As Commissioner I became eligible for this benefit and started the formal process to purchase the vehicle in 2019 and not a few days before March 2020 Elections as stated in the Kaieteur News article.

The depreciated value of the vehicle was calculated by the competent authorities at the Commission. This value is used across the Commission and is detailed in the Transportation Policy that was unanimously approved by the Board of Directors.

It should be noted that under the Department of Lands and Surveys senior staff were entitled to duty free vehicles. When the Department became a Commission in 2001 the staff were transferred to the new body with all benefits.

Accordingly, staff under the new arrangement at the Commission approached the then government and requested that the terms of their employment be honoured with respect to the duty-free vehicles for staff. However, the issue remained unresolved for over fifteen years.

When I became Commissioner/CEO of the Commission this matter was brought to my attention. I took the decision then that if my staff cannot access their entitlement then I would not utilize the duty free concession that was part of my contract. This resulted in me not utilizing two such concessions.

The Board of Directors at the time having been brought up to date on the situation drafted and unanimously adopted a vehicle policy. The Board was of the view that similar to other categories of public officials the GLSC staff should have access to duty free vehicles or an alternative system that will allow them to receive the same benefits. The vehicle policy put in place by the Board adopted some aspects of other government agencies policy. Currently all managers of the Commission benefits from this policy.

I am calling for an immediate retraction of this story, failing which I will have to seek legal recourse in this matter.

Trevor L. Benn