Lack of VROMI Policy Victimizes Many in Government Land Distribution Part 5 ~Questionable request pattern~

Although the criteria for the 25 people selected to receive government long-lease land in Vineyard Heights (Over the Bank) have been publicized, it is still unclear how many people have requested land for this area from the government.  

However, what can be gleaned from the documents related to requests approved and signed by Minister of VROMI Egbert Doran is an unusual pattern in dates of the requests compared to the date of the decision to grant the land.  Doran signed one of the documents on June 29, 2021, but the date of the land request is October 23, 2021 - a date that has not happened yet. 

Another decision has a “draft” watermark over its first page, and the decision date and numbers are absent. Each page of the decision is initiated by Doran with this signature on the last page.  Possible explanations for these anomalies are clerical error, a decision text that was copy and pasted, or a (failed) attempt to backdate the requests. 

For full disclosure, of the 25 decisions signed by Doran to grant for land in Vineyard Heights, 16 have surfaced so far, nine shy of the full number. 

However, nine (9) of these 16 come from persons living in Sucker Garden, with the majority of the rest living in the Cul-de-Sac basin (St. Peters and Betty’s Estate). The legal advice Doran received about the Vineyard Heights project from law firm Gibson and Associates outlined the following selection criteria: the Minister was advised to give a two-week notice in the written media for people who requested land to determine if they're still interested. 

The Minister’s "pilot policy" in Vineyard Heights only considered requests made from January 2020 to the end of May 2021. It is unclear why requests made in previous years were not considered. It is also unclear whether, and in which manner, previous applicants were alerted about the project. Besides the request made in the future, seven of the other 16 requests were made in 2021 before the application deadline of May 31, 2021. Four of those seven were within two weeks of the May deadline. Of the seven requests made in 2020, all were made in the months after the 2020 elections. Doran was sworn in as Minister of VROMI as part of the Jacobs II Cabinet on March 28, 2020. None of the 16 requests came in before that date. Prior to that, Doran served as caretaker Minister of Justice in the Jacobs I Cabinet from November 19, 2019, until March 28, 2020. Elections were on January 9, 2020, and the National Alliance / the United People's party coalition was formed on January 11, 2020.