The Marriott Hotel is a classic case of the misuse of state funds

Dec 13, 2012 Letters

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Dear Editor,
In light of the ongoing construction of the Marriott Hotel, we again reexamine the issue of the use of state funds without Parliament’s approval and the people’s consent. This is clearly outside of the rule of law and it is an indictment on the government. It is also an insult to the people by the opposition to allow this project to continue without putting up a fight.
Pressure by the opposition must be brought to bear on this corrupt regime to adhere to the laws and rules of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act and by extension the Constitution. Respect for the rule of law and the people’s right to know is a key ingredient of democracy.
If this administration believes in democracy, then it must act accordingly and respect the democratic process.
Both the opposition and the people are being kept in the dark as to who are the financiers of the Marriott Hotel and how much of the taxpayers’ money is being used to build what we believe will be another white elephant. We call on the government to come clean and tell the people the truth.
In the law, the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act states that all public moneys shall be classified as either – a) received moneys; b) moneys in the Consolidated Fund, including the Contingencies Fund (under parliament’s control); c) moneys in an Extra-budgetary Fund (such as NICIL, Forestry Commission etc.); d) drawn moneys; or e) moneys in a Deposit Fund.
All of this money, in whatever shape or form is the people’s money and classified as state funds. In 2011 the estimated amount was $160 billion of which some $55 billion is secretly placed in what is called Extra-Budgetary Funds under the direct control of the Minister of Finance.
Only the Minister has access to this money, not Parliament. This $55 billion is not however included in the National Budget and therefore is not investigated by the opposition in Parliament.
Rather, in a most convoluted manner; using unclear regulations, these funds are actually hidden from the Guyanese public.
The Minister is even on record of stating that “NICIL money belongs to NICIL” and not the people.
This is absolute nonsense. We call on the opposition to put an end to this type of abuse of the people’s money.
But how did NICIL acquire its assets and whose properties did it acquire for peanuts and sell at premium prices?  It’s all in the vesting agreement that we will deal with another day to reveal how the poor and the working class are being robbed blindly by the political directorate.
When the above question is answered it will reveal that NICIL’s money belongs to the people of Guyana and must be in the Consolidated Fund and only a deceitful, devious and dishonest cabal would say otherwise. We believe that it is wrong for the government to hide the people’s money and use it as it pleases. Clearly, this is classical misuse of the state funds and should not be tolerated.
In researching the issue it was found that according to the Section 39 of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act, all these outfits like NICIL must submit to the Parliament quarterly reports on their financial operations.
The Lotto Funds, NICIL, Gold Board, Frequency Management Unit, GGMC, and the Forestry Commission should be providing their respective Ministers with quarterly reports to be submitted to Parliament for public scrutiny.
What Mr. Brassington and NICIL’s Board of Directors are not authorized to do is to allocate these Extra-budgetary Funds for financing risky social and economic development projects such as the Marriott Hotel which is being built at a time when hotel occupancy rate in Guyana is at an all-time low of 46 percent. Mr. Brassington and Dr Singh are just the caretakers of these funds and therefore are not authorized to spend it without parliamentary approval.
And as we have seen, they have ignored the laws prescribed in the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act, violated the people’s trust and have blatantly shown contempt for Parliament.
The opposition should demand that they hand over forthwith a number of pertinent financial records of all the state assets that have been disposed of/sold by the Government through NICIL, and to deposit into the Consolidated Fund all monies from NICIL, save and except cash to pay the operation cost of NICIL for 12 months.
This is what the people expect from the opposition because they elected them to keep a very close eye on how the government spends the taxpayers’ money.
On June 17th, 2012, the government jettisoned Mr. Carl Greenidge’s motion to direct the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh and the junior minister, Mr. Juan Edghill to make all moneys available from the coffers for an independent audit of NICIL.
It is most unfortunate that the majority opposition to date has not been able to make right on Mr. Greenidge’s motion.
Let us be candid, why did the people vote for the opposition AFC and APNU in the first place when from a position of strength they cower to the PPP bullyism?  For them to carry out such a lame duck attempt in Parliament at righting the wrongs committed by the arrogant and contemptuous PPP is politically pathetic?
APNU and the AFC must be aware that they have to be more aggressive in dealing with this political monster if not, they will lose the battle and the trust and confidence placed in them by the people. In other words, they will have no credibility left and this is exactly what the PPP wants.
Why the opposition has not used its majority in Parliament to pass laws to correct past injustices is anyone’s guess?
After one year, the majority opposition has not passed a single law in Parliament to relieve the burden on the poor and the working class. They have presided over what we have called a “do-nothing” Parliament which is about to recess in a few days.
As we stated, there is some $55 billion outside of the Consolidated Funds and to date, some 12 months after the elections all these funds still remain outside and continue to be misused on shady projects without Parliamentary approval.
The leaders of APNU and the AFC should know from past experiences that they cannot and should not trust the dictatorial PPP. The burden is on the combined opposition to expose the wrongs committed by the PPP and to pass laws to prevent them from happening in the future.
This act of pumping billions of the taxpayers’ funds into the Marriot Hotel without Parliamentary approval is illegal and this illegality must be corrected retrospectively, even if it means putting some before the Courts in a future Government.
This is the ‘Fip’ Motilall saga all over again. It is this same cabal who found all the reasons to justify the reckless financial support for ‘Fip’, only to have that Ponzi scheme unravel like a pack of cards.  Do we have another pack of cards in the making?  Yes we do!
Today, because of the scorched earth policy of the PPP administration and their intransigence on the ‘Fip’ Motilall issue, the taxpayers are in the red, having lost hundreds of millions in this scheme that is best described as white collar fraud.
Yet no one has been charged or held accountable. In light of all this evidence, what are APNU and the AFC doing?
In closing we want to let the people know that the barrier to good governance and the lack of transparency is being done willfully by the regime to secretly use the taxpayers’ money to finance projects that will benefit themselves, their business buddies and relatives.
Our hope is for the sleeping opposition to finally awake and put an end to the blatant abuse of power and misuse of state funds.
Dr. Asquith Rose and Harish S. Singh

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