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PPP/C is acronym for ‘Planning Poor Projects Constantly’

Jul 04, 2010 Letters

Dear Editor,
The follies of the PPP/C Administration never cease to amaze me.
Over the years in the pages of this publication, there are numerous reports of wasteful spending of taxpayers’ money on projects that can be best classified as ‘White Elephants’, while others have been poorly built and constantly in need of repairs. A few that comes to mind, include:
The Diamond Market Tarmac
The stelling at Good Hope/Supenaam
The Blood Bank in the compound of the New Amsterdam Public Hospital
The Versailles Health Clinic
The Community Youth Centre at Kuru Kururu on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway, and Numerous poorly constructed roads and bridges.
In 2011, I hope the electorate remembers the PPP/C as acronym for “Planning Poor Projects Constantly” or “Poorly Planning Projects Constantly”…take your pick.
Now there is yet another project that is being poorly planned: The Georgetown Marriott Hotel that, come hell or high water, the Government will do “whatever it takes” to bring this project to fruition.
I vividly recall the rush to secure accommodation for visitors during the 2007 Cricket World Cup, and the Government’s involvement in the construction of Buddy’s International Hotel. As a result, local businessmen got involved improving their facilities or building new ones.
I wondered at the time whether the rate of tourism had increased sufficiently enough to sustain full occupancy of these hotels when the cricket tournament was over. Then the Guyana Government hosted CARIFESTA in 2008, and once again, hoteliers were happy…but not for long. For the sad reality is simply this: compared to other Caribbean nations, tourism in Guyana is at best budding, and at worst, non-existent.
It is not the job of government to host international events to ensure a high hotel occupancy rate, and it’s not the job of government to be investing taxpayers’ money in projects like hotels. Their job is to create the right atmosphere and provide incentives and guidelines for the private sector to invest in businesses that would create jobs and grow the economy.
What the Jagdeo Administration ought to be doing instead, is beautifying the City of Georgetown, making it more conducive to tourism. Offer incentives to home-owners to keep their environment clean and to demolish derelict buildings; clean up the garbage and manicure grassy embankments; relocate vendors and give back the sidewalks to the pedestrians; build a better and safer road from the airport to Georgetown with adequate lighting; impound all cattle that roam the streets compromising the safety of vehicular traffic; drastically reduce crime, and do so without the police parading in crowded streets visibly carrying their menacing sub-machine guns reminiscent of a police state.
For only when this is realised, will tour operators have the confidence to recommend Guyana as a tourist destination, and only then will tourism flourish.
The Georgetown Marriott Hotel is a wonderful project, but must not be built at the expense of the Guyanese taxpayers. And while hotels in Georgetown are currently struggling to keep their doors open, the construction of the Marriott with partial government’s funding will see a shift of hotel guests from the Pegasus and smaller hotels, to the Marriott.
If this project is rushed through without Georgetown undergoing a complete metamorphosis, it wouldn’t be long before they too realise that there is simply not enough tourist, to justify the tremendous cost of building, maintaining and staffing a 160-room hotel with a low occupancy rate.
Harry Gill

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