Gassan's big plan - Azan to use West Parade property to house small businesses

CHAIRMAN OF Bashco Trading Company Limited, Gassan Azan, says he will be spending some $220 million to establish 35 to 40 business units for small entrepreneurs at 35 West Parade, the facility he purchased for $30 million from the Urban Development Corporation (UDC).

However, as Azan put plans in place to start reconstruction of the premises in January 2012, Contractor General Greg Christie said yesterday that the attorney general's advice to the UDC that the property should be sold to Bashco would not deter his office from probing the sale of the building.

The UDC had admitted to the Office of the Contractor General (OCG) that it did not advertise the sale of the property, which contravenes Ministry Paper number 34. The ministry paper states that the sale of state-owned assets should be publicly advertised.

Christie said the OCG believed the circumstances which prompted its investigation in the first place have so far been heightened.

In a news release yesterday, Christie said the OCG would not comment on its ongoing investigation, nor the confidential information regarding the matter which it has in its custody.

But Christie yesterday suggested that he was alarmed at the UDC's pronouncement that it was not aware of the applicable government-owned asset divestment procedures for the past 20 years.

According to Christie, the UDC's "questionable ignorance" of Ministry Paper number 34 has brought into sharp focus a disclosure by former Prime Minister Bruce Golding on May 17, 2011. Christie said that Golding had written to the OCG indicating that the "procedures outlined in Ministry Paper number 34 for the privatisation of government-owned assets will be observed in relation to any such activity". The then prime minister had portfolio responsibility for the UDC.

The contractor general said the OCG remained extremely concerned about the Government's "questionable and embarrassing approaches to the divestment of publicly owned assets".

Meanwhile, Azan said the business facilities to be constructed at 35 West Parade would be slated for completion by December next year.

He said tenants would be able to occupy the units by Christmas 2012.

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com