NICIL Chairman writes on the confidentiality of the Marriot Contract

Sep 08, 2016 Letters

Dear Editor,
In the Kaieteur News’ September Article entitled “NICIL Director shows two faces on release of Marriott contract” it is implied that, since I had made a normative statement a few months ago that contracts signed by a Government on behalf of the tax-paying public should not be secret, I have subsequently reneged by stating that the Marriott Agreement is “strictly confidential”. On the contrary, I am not deliberately withholding information, since the hands of the current Board of Directors are tied.
Confidentiality clauses were pervasively and deeply embedded in the Marriott arrangements (relating to aspects such as licensing, royalty, management, advertising, marketing, promotion and sales, and “competitive information”) that were negotiated by the previous administration and it is for the present Government/Cabinet to decide whether it wants to place in the public domain the substantive terms and conditions, given the legal implications. The Marriott confidentiality clauses are informed by company’s take it or leave it core corporate creed that “matters and information are not disclosed to any outside person without the prior consent of the other party”. The world of transparency and accountability has certain black holes vis-a-vis the competing neoliberal paradigm.
I continue to maintain, based on my eleven years of experience as a Director in UNCTC (New York) and UNCTAD (Geneva) dispensing technical assistance advice to all over the world, that secrecy relating to commercial contracts involving transnational corporations (except for security, sensitive and strategic matters) is not in the developing countries’ best interest and that they should endeavour to exchange information among themselves about what should constitute benchmark contractual terms and conditions. That is one way of leveling the playing field and reducing the information asymmetry, in which a transnational corporation typically knows what terms have been negotiated with each of its clients, but any single client does not have this information and therefore does not know what could be considered the norm, with respect to the particular equity or non-equity investment arrangement. The question is, ‘how did Guyana know whether it was getting a good deal or not’?
It is unfortunate that the Marriott Agreement(s) cannot be placed in the public domain. Insistence by a corporation on confidentiality is as much designed to enhance benefits vis-a-vis its clients as to maintain so-called competitive advantage vis-à-vis other corporations.
Maurice Odle (Dr.)
Chairman, NICIL

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NICIL Chairman writes on the confidentiality of the Marriot Contract

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