By Leandra Rolle

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

ATTORNEY General Ryan Pinder said the Davis administration would immediately pay $10m to “scores” of Bahamians owed money for land the government took from them for public use.

He suggested this is a small amount of the “tens of millions” of dollars owed.

He said that successive administrations have failed to compensate Bahamian landowners for decades, calling this “unjust”.

“As colleagues would know and as I have spoken in this place and Senator Rahming was the one who brought this up over and over that the government owes tens of millions of dollars to Bahamians who had their land taken from them for public use and for government roads and different things that are public use things and have never been compensated for that,” Mr Pinder said in the Senate yesterday.

“I have the assurance and cooperation from the Ministry of Finance that we will put in a proper plan in place to satisfy all arrears owed on property acquisition matters that are largely due to Bahamians across the archipelago.”

“In all communities of this country, everywhere that a new road was built, practically there’s a land acquired to do it, and monies are owed to Bahamians for that, and this government will satisfy the decades-old issue of giving the Bahamians what they are constitutionally entitled to receive.”

 Mr Pinder did not say how many landowners are owed money.

 “No other government before us, regardless of administration, has taken on this initiative to satisfy these claims to Bahamians,” he said. “Madame president, this new day government will take it on, and we will achieve the goal of satisfying the obligations to those Bahamians.”

 Mr Pinder also discussed the status of the government’s settlement agreement with Arawak Homes and the regularisation of homeowners in Pinewood Gardens.

 “This has been a vexing issue for scores of Bahamians,” he said. “I am pleased to announce that we have been working diligently and now have provided Arawak Homes with completed files for 55 homes to be conveyed to those Bahamians from Arawak Homes.”

 “We continue to work on it, and there are 43 files remaining that are being reviewed and completed and verified to provide to Arawak Homes to complete this exercise.”