THE URBAN Development Corporation (UDC) has received nearly $1 billion in the revised budget to refund Puerto Caribe Properties Limited, a subsidiary of Palace Resorts, after the company pulled out of a sale agreement for Rooms on the Beach property in Ocho Rios earlier this year.
The company had written to the UDC indicating that it would rescind the deal owing to a controversial report from former contractor general Dirk Harrison, which claimed that the public body gave away a US$13.5 million property for US$7.2 million.
In his report, Harrison had also accused Daryl Vaz, minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, of influencing the sale of the St Ann hotel and beach lands below market value by the state-owned UDC.
Harrison’s report had stated that the UDC was unable to negotiate freely and from a position of strength in the sale of Rooms on the Beach to Puerto Caribe Properties Limited because of Vaz’s direct involvement and that of other state agencies.
At yesterday’s Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) meeting to examine the First Supplementary Estimates, Financial Secretary Darlene Morrison was pressed for answers as to why the UDC was receiving such a significant allocation from the finance ministry.
