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Owner of Sleepin chain of hotels explains

Feb 07, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
I refer to the sensational front-page headline of Kaieteur News, Sunday Edition, 5th February: “Go-Invest watched on for years as investors raped Guyana’s forests.” Please note the following that was carried:-
· Instead of sanctions, logging companies rewarded with billions in concessions.
· Recommended best concessions for Sleepin Hotel, favoured few
· EX-CEO transferred after refusing to carry out unlawful act
· Entity was personal piggy bank for Keith Burrowes
The clear intention of those bold and blaring headlines was to convey the impression that Sleepin Hotel improperly, unfairly and perhaps corruptly benefited from concessions to which it was not entitled. As the applicant for these concessions and the owner of the Sleepin chain of hotels, I reject this impression as false and malicious. The veritable truth is that the Government of the day offered a regime of concessions for investments in the hotel and hospitality sector.
As far as I am aware, these concessions were available to all investors. To benefit from these concessions, one had to comply with a long and elaborate process involving Go-Invest, the Ministry of Finance and the Guyana Revenue Authority; similarly, one had to satisfy certain laid out requirements. The process contained certain checks and balances, which allowed the three aforementioned agencies to check, verify and authenticate the information provided by the investor.
I applied for the concessions, utilizing the required procedures; the information that I provided were checked, verified and authenticated by the relevant agencies and I was granted the concessions for which I applied. In fact, the concessions to which the article referred are not the first concessions granted to me as a hotelier. In 2005/2006, I was invited by the then Government to apply for concessions which I did and was granted and utilized in the expansion of the Sleepin International Hotel, located at Brickdam, Georgetown. At that time, Guyana was preparing to host its leg of the International Cricket World Cup in 2007 and the country was in dire need of hotel accommodation.
Significantly, Guyana continues to benefit from the investments which I have made, utilizing those concessions. The Sleepin chain of hotels has an international reputation of providing affordable accommodation in a quality environment with warm competent and cordial staff. It provides employment, at this point in time for over a hundred Guyanese families and it contributes millions of dollars, annually, in taxes. Unlike, concessions and facilities granted to other hotels, the Sleepin chain never benefited from any movable or immovable asset from the State.
In the circumstance, Kaieteur News should be promoting the Sleepin chain of hotels rather than seeking to damnify it. Needless to say, Sleepin Hotel is the subject of the leading advertisement on the online edition of Kaieteur News.
Clifton Bacchus
Owner of Sleepin chain of Hotels

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