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AFC wants Marriott feasibility study to be made public

Feb 14, 2013 News

–  Nigel Hughes says country going back to colonisation

 

Alliance for Change (AFC) Chairman Nigel Hughes yesterday called on the government to make public the Marriott feasibility study which dictated that the country needs more hotel rooms.
“We do not believe it was driven by data which suggested the need to build the hotel,” Hughes said yesterday.
Hughes said that there needs to be data to drive the necessity of projects like the Marriott.
“I am unaware of any destination in the world, where you build a hotel and hope people would come,” Hughes stated.
The government has said that its feasibility study is favourable for the project, but is refusing to make the document public, saying it would reveal it to the opposition parliamentary parties behind closed doors.
However, Hughes said that if the document is available it should be made public so Guyanese can examine it since it is taxpayers’ money that is being used in the project.
“The best thing is to share it with the country; don’t share it with me behind closed doors,” Hughes declared.
He said that foreigners would be employed from the ground to the top, since with the lack of hospitality training schools in Guyana, it is unlikely that Marriott management would employ a significant number of locals in management positions.
Hughes said that most of the Guyanese who would be employed would end up being gardeners and cleaners and other low end jobs.
He said that data does not suggest that there is a huge amount of airlift to Guyana to necessitate additional rooms, and further, the majority of genuine tourists who come to Guyana do not come to Georgetown but go into the interior.
His comments came as he further denounced the fact that the government negotiated a construction contract that bars Guyanese from employment.
Hughes suggested that the government is pursuing a policy that paints Guyana as being worse off than the colonial days. In those times, he said that the owners and managerial classes were foreign and the workforce was local. But now, he said with the Marriott project, all classes of workers are foreign.
“The multi-lingual negotiators the government chose to negotiate with China, obviously thought it was not in the best interest of the country that any Guyanese be permitted to work at that site because they are not qualified to do so,” Hughes stated yesterday.
He said that there is nothing in terms of aesthetics or engineering that is beyond Guyanese engineers or other construction personnel, so it is “unbelievable” that the government would suggest Guyana lacks the skills.

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