The Marriott will hurt the taxpayer

Dec 19, 2012 Letters

Dear Editor,
Based on your news item, “House votes: No more tax dollars for Marriott unless…” (KN, December 18), Guyanese at home and abroad should welcome the AFC move to the court to force the PPP regime to cease and desist from using taxpayers’ money to help fund the construction of the controversial Marriott Hotel in Kingston, Georgetown.
It is a move that is a win-win situation for Guyanese, because Guyanese will continue to at least see that the AFC is willing and able to fight the corrupt and defiant PPP monster, and it will also force the PPP regime to present its feasibility studies on the project and the financial arrangements of the deal in court, even if the government feels it is not obligated to abide by the House’s ruling.
Guyanese at home and abroad need to know that the AFC is not against any sort of development. In fact, since its inception in October 2005, the AFC has been fighting for an overall change in the way Government does business. And following the one-seat parliamentary majority it obtained together with APNU, November 2011, has prosecuted with undiminished intensity its fight for accountability and transparency in government.
I know of no other democratic government in any law-abiding country that takes taxpayers’ money and invests it in a private company without the legislative branch and other checks and balance agencies being privy to the investment. Even President Barack Obama, who has used American taxpayers’ dollars to invest in private companies – some too big to fail – has to subject those investments for public scrutiny, including, if necessary, any queries by the US Congress.
Deemed ‘venture capitalist investments’ by some, the Obama administration set aside US$80B in 2009 to subsidize energy green energy projects, and while the report card on these projects have been mixed or even politically controversial, it is the fact that every single taxpayer dollar must be and has been accounted for; even where losses occurred.
With the Marriott project, the way the financial deal is structured, investors, other than the Guyana Government, will have first dibs at whatever money is left in the hotel if it were to go bust later on. And this is one near fatal aspect of the entire investment that worries the AFC, APNU and all concerned Guyanese, because there is no investment company (which is what the PPP regime is becoming here) that cares about its clients that would ever enter into such an arrangement not caring if its clients came out the losers.
Again, the AFC is not against development, but the haphazard and irresponsible manner in which the PPP regime has been approaching the Marriott with public funds, even as it has done with other projects and investments demands our public input. For example, the regime signed off on a US$15.4M road construction project with Makeshwar ‘Fip’ Motilall, even though it and everyone knew Motilall never built a driveway or sidewalk, let alone a road.
The regime invested US$30M of NIS money in Clico (Guy), US$4M of NIS money in the Caricom complex, and $6B in the Berbice Bridge, then watched as the NIS sank.
Moreover, the Marriott is not a manufacturing or production-based entity, but a service entity that will depend on mostly tourists and others with money to burn on entertainment. And these people are not reliable sources of support.
For example, the Jagdeo regime loaned $168M to Buddy Shivraj to complete his hotel in time for CWC 2007 and watched as he struggled to repay the loan because of low occupancy. So why would the regime proceed to invest taxpayers’ money again in an almost similar project?
Finally, it would be apposite to note that NICIL’s CEO, Winston Brassington, told Guyana Times several months ago that NICIL’s audited accounts for the last 8 years will be presented to Parliament by July 31, 2012. Here we are at the end of the year and he has not kept his promise, yet NICIL is using taxpayers’ money to fund the Marriott.
I believe the AFC has an iron-clad case before the court if the President refuses to abide by the House’s vote to stop the regime from using taxpayers’ money on the Marriott, and Guyanese at home and abroad should publicly come out in support of the AFC as it once again takes on the corrupt and defiant PPP regime.
Emile Mervin

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The Marriott will hurt the taxpayer

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