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Brassington says Marriott Hotel built with NICIL money, not tax dollars
– Pegasus owner rubbishes claim, calls Brassington a fraudster
Head of National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), Winston Brassington, strongly
NICIL Head, Winston Brassington
insisted yesterday that the US$58M Marriott Hotel has at no point in time, been funded with taxpayers’ monies.
Brassington, during a press conference held at the unfinished complex, told media operatives that in the meantime, NICIL, as the principal owner of Atlantic Hotel Inc., “has from its own resources, earned directly from the sale of investments owned by NICIL or dividend returns from its investments, and not from taxpayers’ money. It provided bridge financing to an amount of US$16M for the completion of the construction of the hotel.”
He said that NICIL will be reimbursed in accordance with the financial arrangements originally projected.
Brassington was then pressed to say what exactly NICIL sold in order to finance the construction of the hotel. He claimed that while it was not intended for that purpose, some of the proceeds from the sale of the 20 percent interest in the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company were invested into the project. He said, too, that dividends from different investments in state-owned entities and others in which NICIL has a minority interest were also used.
Brassington asserted that every dollar invested in the hotel is well spent. He said that NICIL, and by extension, AHI’s financial transactions are subject to full public disclosure and scrutiny, and audited by the Audit Office of Guyana and presented for Parliamentary review.
Pegasus Owner, Robert Badal
However, Pegasus Hotel owner Robert Badal has described Brassington’s statements as “utter rubbish”. The businessman said that now more than ever, he will continue to hold the position that “the Marriott Hotel was conceived in fraud and executed by a fraudster.”
Badal told Kaieteur News last night that he strongly believes that the project is not a viable one and he has even sought to make a public call for President Donald Ramotar to ensure that the AHI head is slapped with fraud charges.
As for Brassington’s claim that the hotel is funded with NICIL proceeds and not taxpayers’ dollars, Badal says that this constitutes “a gross insult to the basic god-given common sense of the nation.”
The hotelier insists that taxpayers funded the entire project. He reiterated that the NICIL head is “nothing but a fraudster.”
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