THE MEDIA IS MISSING THE ISSUE

Oct 08, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Taxpayers’ monies are going to be used to complete the Casique Hotel located behind the former Buddy’s International Hotel. That venture was supposed to have been completed in time for Cricket World Cup in 2007. It was not.  Just why, we were never quite sure.
The incomplete structure stood out like a huge concrete skeleton, waiting for works to be recommenced by the private investor. Those works are now likely to begin anew.
The government has indicated that it will be investing in the completion of the hotel.  The government will take taxpayers’ money and use it to complete the venture.
There was big hue and cry when in the run up to Cricket World Cup the government advanced sums to facilitate the completion of Buddy’s International Hotel. The government justified its decision at the time on the grounds that it needed the hotel up and ready in time for the tournament.
The government also advanced monies to Casique but this did not attract the same intensity of criticism as its assistance to Buddy’s International Hotel.  Some persons hit the roof when it was revealed that the government was assisting Buddy’s International Hotel but remained silent about the assistance to Casique. I wonder why?
The government has now announced that it will be investing in the completion of the Casique Hotel. We are told that when completed the hotel will then be sold, thus allowing the government to recover its investment, both the original and the forthcoming.
Now just whose interest does this deal serve? Does it serve the interests of the citizens of Guyana whose hard earned taxes will now be plugged into this venture which will then be sold to some private individual?
However, which way you look at it what we have here are taxpayers’ funds being used to complete something that will end up in the hands of a private individual or firm.
This was the very argument that was used in this column in relation to a privatisation deal. A building was renovated to the tune of tens of millions of dollars and then sold. The buyer was saved the worry of having to go to the bank to seek financing for the renovation of the facility. The buyer got a refurbished hotel because taxpayers’ funds were used to renovate it before the sale.
It was the same argument also used to assail the financing of the Berbice River Bridge. The NIS loaned moneys to certain investors who in turn invested in the Berbice River Bridge. It is like me lending you so that you can invest in some other project.
I do not understand the rationale for this investment to complete the Casique Hotel. Why did the government not simply acquire the hotel by virtue of the liens it has on the structure and then sell it as it is, thus avoiding the needs to spend public funds to complete the structure?
The issue here is about the stewardship of public funds. And this is the very issue that many in the media, including Stabroek News, and the Alliance for Change are missing. The issue of ads for the Guyana Times is much bigger than press freedom issue. It is about the use of private funds to support private businesses.
We are now in a new era when it comes to the use of public funds. Let us not forget that a certain company won a massive contract with the government and amazingly receives its payments upfront rather than upon delivery. Thus, the said firm need not find its own funds to procure the items it needs to supply. It can take the payment it receives up front and procure the items it is contractually obligated to supply. How can this be right?
The Guyana Times is just an example of the need to ensure that public funds are properly used. The Guyana Times has no incentive to increase its circulation. If your newspaper is barely selling but if you are receiving some 20 per cent of State ads, why bother about increasing your costs by trying to print more. You can make a decent profit simply through the government advertisements.
Look, Kaieteur News knows that it is under attack. It pointed out that a long time ago. It knows about the machinations that are afoot.
No one bothered about disproportionate ads during the first ten years of this newspaper when Kaieteur News did not receive a single government advertisement. We did not get any, and no one protested. Kaieteur News survived because of the Guyanese people. Kaieteur News is confident that in spite of all the pressures being placed against this newspaper that it will survive regardless of whether government ads are proportionate.
The disproportionate number of ads that the Guyana Times is receiving must not be seen simply as a matter of press freedom. It should more importantly be seen as a means through which public funds are being used to prop up and support private businesses.

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