The credentials of this country’s Chief Surveyor Adolphus “Dopy” Ollivierre as a commercial property valuator have been questioned.{{more}}

During the sitting of the Land Acquisition Act Board of Assessment in the matter of Defreitas Investment Holdings Limited (DIHL) v The Government of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, appraisals of the value of land and buildings were received from Ollivierre, Chris Browne and Franklyn Evans.

While the Board in is report, said it had no problems with Browne’s or Evans’s qualifications, competence and experience, this seems not to have been the case with Ollivierre.

“There was considerable debate surrounding his academic and professional qualifications and his credentials to render a properly considered opinion of value on the subject property. The majority of the Board found itself unable to draw a conclusion about the scope and quality of his professional training, but decided to be guided by his testimony about his professional experience in the area of commercial property valuation,” stated the report which was handed over to His Excellency the Governor General Sir Frederick Ballantyne on Friday, October 3, 2008, by the Chairman of the Board of Assessors Justice Frederick Bruce-Lyle.

The report added that Ollivierre’s failure to present

original appraisals in evidence left “a troublesome question in the majority of the Board’s mind as to why they were not submitted”.

The Board expressed that it was also troubled by Ollivierre’s testimony in which he claimed not to know of Browne’s appraisal. The Board described Ollivierre’s assertion that he did not know of the report in the face of evidence to the contrary as “disingenuous”.

According to the report, “In all of the circumstances above, the majority of the Board ascribes relatively more weight to the valuation opinions and testimony of Browne and Evans…”.