By Fatmata Jengbe
It is no mean feat for any Minister in the New Direction Government of HE President Bio to be rated very high in the Integrity Score Card and for the Minister of Lands, Dr Dennis Sandy to maintain the high position of top 6 in the Score Card means he deserves his position as appointed by HE President Bio.
All successive Ministers in that Ministry agree on one thing and that is that the Lands Ministry stands out as the toughest of Ministries.
This is a Ministry where there is direct contact between the people and the Executive Arm of Government and Dr Sandy is living up to the task. The new ideas that Dr Sandy has introduced in the Ministry are highly commendable and satisfactory to citizens.
Because Land Grabbing has become a norm all over the country with many Government lands having been grabbed with impunity, Dr Sandy has come up with solutions that benefit both Government and citizens.
The Minister first recovers the land from the grabbers and then leases them out to the grabbers who pay a lease fee to government with the government raising money for the Consolidated Fund which would otherwise have gone down the drain.
This recovery and lease of Government property by the Lands Ministry under the leadership of Dr Sandy, is very popular among citizens and eases the land tensions that were plaguing this country for many years in the past.
Land encroachment was another headache for the legal system but Dr Sandy is using his down to earth approach to settle them even without the intervention of the police and the courts where land cases most times last ten years and above with many litigants dying without getting justice.
Dr Sandy, just within this short time in the Ministry of Lands has been to settle hundreds of land disputes with all sides going home very satisfied and on top of that he has raised much needed revenue for the Government.
Working according to the Millennium Goal of Land Security for citizens, Dr Sandy has been able to help a good number of citizens secure land for their respective families.
The Integrity Score Card made no mistake at all in rating Dr Sandy very high as he is a Minister that works.
