Congress Place Lease: De Facto Sale or Legitimate Commercial Deal?

By Mark DaCosta- The People’s National Congress Reform’s (PNCR) proposed lease of a portion of the Congress Place compound for a hotel development has raised a fundamental question that goes beyond the legal distinction between a lease and a sale: at what point does a long-term lease become, in practical terms, a transfer of control over property?

A Guyanese analyst who is also a member of the PNCR believes that question must now be confronted openly.

PNCR General Secretary Sherwin Benjamin has rejected suggestions that Congress Place is being sold, maintaining that the headquarters has not been sold and will not be sold. The reported arrangement involves leasing the northern portion of the Sophia property for a proposed hotel development, as part of an effort to generate income from party-owned assets. The PNCR has said its business arm, Maikwak Limited, is being used to monetise party properties.