GOVERNMENT spends close to half a billion dollars in rent annually.
Over $200 million was spent each year on 105 properties over the last seven years and this does not account for some of the more expensive rentals such as One Alexandra Place, St Clair, which is rented out to the Ministry of Public Utilities; and 3 Alexandra Place leased to the Personnel Department.
The government rents more than 300 properties.
In September 2019, the Opposition asked the Government to provide a list of all State rentals and the cost being paid to the properties.
A written answer to the Senate listed 350 properties at a monthly cost of $36 million.
Some of the monthly and annual rental figures were recently disclosed to UNC activist Ravi Balgobin-Maharaj who made formal requests to the Ministry of Public Administration in September 2022 under the Freedom of Information Act.
Balgobin-Maharaj was told by the Public Administration Ministry that while “due diligence” checks, however, no copies of the offer letter and/or acceptance letter were found for several rental agreements.
He said there was a definite need to decentralise and decongest the capital city and hence “the rental of buildings in other parts of the country could assist in this debilitating the problem which adversely affects the quality of life and productivity.”
In 2020, when he turned the sod for the new Ministry of Health’s headquarters at Queen’s Park Savannah, East, Port of Spain, the Prime Minister said TT was set to save millions in dollars in rental fees.
The issue of rental fees shot in the spotlight recently when Dr Rowley said some $45 million was spent on an unoccupied building on Park Street which was supposed to house the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Rowley said then that the government was reviewing the buildings rented for state departments to determine if they were occupied. He said the new Ministry of Health head office, likely to be opened in June, will reduce the rental costs significantly.
The rental of One Alexandra Place – estimated at $600,000 a month in 2020 and 3 Alexandra Place at $575,000 a month – has been used as a political football by the Opposition which has complained about these two properties – and two others – being owned by relatives of government minister Faris Al-Rawi. The properties are owned by companies where Al-Rawi’s wife, Mona Nahous Al-Rawi, is a director.
Al-Rawi, a former attorney general and now the Minister of Rural Development and Local Government, has repeatedly distanced himself from those transactions, saying took no part in the rental process and declared his interest.
In January 2020, Dr Rowley said to Parliament the UNC administration had rented the One Alexandra Place building and left it unoccupied.
In his request, Balgobin-Maharaj, who is represented by a team of attorneys, led by former attorney general Anand Ramlogan, SC, said it was clear that the Government’s rental of private property has “mushroomed into a state of significant mismanagement whereby value fo
