“The government has presented a solution in this matter and it was decided that the land in question would be returned to the state. Landvreugd has agreed to this. It must be made clear that Landvreugd acted in good conscience and that he did not make any mistakes,” said Brunswijk.

The VP explained that when somebody asks for a specific piece of land, the Ministry of Land Policy and Forest Management (GBB) must carry out an inspection and if it turns out that the land belongs to another ministry such as the Ministry of Social Affairs and Housing (Sozavo), it will first ask that ministry for its advice. Sozavo initially indicated that it had no objections against the allocation. However, VP Brunswijk failed to mention that Sozavo had made it clear to GBB that a thorough investigation should be launched to determine the exact status of that particular piece of government land upon which a building was constructed. Brunswijk claimed that GBB allocated the land to the foundation that was run by Landvreugd at that time because Sozavo did not have any objections.

MP Asiskumar Gajadien (VHP), however, made it clear that a different procedure is required when there is a building on a piece of government land that has been requested and that the Council of Ministers must make a decision in such cases. In other words the request should have been sent to the Council of Ministers as GBB was not authorized to act on its own in this matter. 

Brunswijk emphasized that Landvreugd was not yet in office when he requested that piece of land. “He filed his request as a citizen and followed he same procedure like all other people,” said VP  Brunswijk. When asked if political pressure was utilized in the matter, Brunswijk strongly denied it and stated that it is not uncommon for land upon which there are buildings are allocated as long as the ‘guardian’ of that land has no objections. “This is an exceptional case. It was a misunderstanding. There was no corruption or abuse of power,” said Brunswijk who acknowledged that the land allocation system requires improvement.