Many years ago, an employee of public works, an ambtenaar, who had powerful friends in high places amassed a fortune by doing business with government land, and never coming to work. He was privy to inside information regarding high-demand etfpacht, lease land, and exploited his position for personal gains,
Let’s say his name was Paul.
He selected an extra valuable parcel across the resorts on Palm Beach and built himself a mall, he also constructed 17 wooden carts and placed them on the government’s sidewalk, in front of his property, as kiosks, collecting more than Awg 2,000 a month from each, all small wannabe-merchants. Yes, collecting rent for spaces that he did not own.
You can imagine that people who rent carts are no business moguls, they have no clue how to apply for this permit or the other license, or what the difference between leased and government land, is. They just want to make a modest living, and find it hard to read the small print, something Paul was well aware of.
Years went by, rents came in on time, 17 x Awg 2,000/month, for over ten years, in addition to the businesses renting spaces in the mall. The shameful sidewalk bazaar, junking Palm Beach, was lucrative, without lifting a finger.
Then a new minister came into office, and said, NO POR, this can’t be. The sidewalk is indeed big enough, but not for 17 carts. Organize a lottery, pick seven, and those lucky seven will get to keep their kiosks, but pay rent to the GOVERNMENT – after all, it’s GOA’s sidewalk.
Indeed, DIP issued one round of billing, and the 7 lucky kiosks started sending money to the tax department for what is called PRECARIO, but Paul continued to collect rent as before, for bathroom access, internet for the POS machines, water and cleaning, he claimed.
The seven wannabe merchants did well, business was good, they never stopped to think, never took the time to read. They were never aware of their rights, nor obligations, they just wanted to fall into Paul’s good graces. Afraid. Unwilling to rock the boat. They had a lot to lose. Over time Paul decided no more internet, let them get their own, the bathrooms were public, anyway, he never cleaned, and his deal got even sweeter.
Naivety, has a price tags, and the seven merchants paid through the nose, to the government and to the crooked landlord. I guess they could afford it.
Agreements? There were none in sight because Paul kept them all in his office, luckily one copy was found, and it revealed that the five years were up, on October 25th, 2023. That’s in 9 days.
On October 25th, the merchants should just show up to work with their own carts, let Paul take back his. They have the government’s blessing, they pay Precario, and they owe Paul ZERO, nothing, nada.
How did this story surface? Because greed is a handicapped. A few weeks ago Paul urgently asked GOA to remove “the squatters” off “his” land, because he was going to apply for a permit to build a bar. The kiosks were no longer good-enough, and had to go. A bar seemed more lucrative, monkey-see, monkey-do, a la Mambo Jumbo.
Paul filed an urgent court case to remove them.
Luckily, for the first time ever, the merchants hired a lawyer, it took some convincing, but it helped them understand their situation, and made clear to them, they have been had.
In court, the judge was of the opinion that there is no reason for the urgent hearing, and that indeed the kiosks were legit.
Paul is not building a bar anytime soon.
Just to recap, so you remember how righteous Paul was: Earlier this year, he was sentenced in the first instance to 2 years in jail, of which 1 is conditional, for bribery and money laundering.
Because of, alas, a sloppy investigation, he was partially acquitted from the charge of active bribery of the minister of infrastructure. A special condition was also imposed on him, namely, he cannot apply for or obtain options on commercial leaseholds for a period of 3 years.
Which means he was banned from future feasting, and a sum of 1.3 million dollars, which stuck to his finger, was confiscated. Because the Public Prosecution Service had previously demanded an unconditional prison sentence of 4 years, it was disappointed with the actual sentence, and they filed an appeal.
