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Private hotel developers should not trump national interest — Dr. Jerry Jailall
GRA land transfer saga…
Kaieteur News – Oil and Gas Governance Network (OGGN) advocate, Dr. Jerry Jailall recently reprimanded the PPP/C Government over its decision to transfer prime plots of land meant for the construction of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA)’s headquarters to private hotel developers.
Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo
Guyanese-Canadian, Dr. Jerry Jailall
In a letter to the editor, the OGGN advocate said he believes the needs of foreign investors should not trump the national interest.
The Guyanese-Canadian noted that GRA should be made a priority since it is the most important agency collecting revenue for the government.
“How do private hotels have priority over Guyana’s needs? Why would the Government go out of its way to commandeer State land for private hotels by moving a national project?”questioned Dr. Jailall.
His comments come one day after Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo gave assurance that GRA will now be given a plot of land at Ogle to build its headquarters.
While the State-earmarked land at Pattensen for the GRA Headquarters had been transferred to hotel developer Pasha Global of Suriname, Jagdeo revealed that the two other hotels will also occupy the State land at Pattensen.
In his letter, Dr. Jailall said that the recent debacle of the GRA losing its land on which its new head office would have been built, raises concern about how State assets are doled out. He opined that the Government does not yet understand that transparency is important.
“It was the lack of transparency that put Guyana in a mess when the PNC signed the bad oil contracts, which were kept secret,” OGGN affiliate stated.
He added that when government gives away national assets, it must release the documents showing the terms and conditions.
“We have no disclosures on the GRA land about whether it’s a sale, a lease and what Guyana is getting. We also do not know what Guyana is getting from the deal in which the Enmore Packaging Plant was given to private interests.
The Packaging Plant was supposed to help the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) turn around its fortunes, yet the Government was willing to give that away to private interests. We hear of three big new foreign companies coming in to cart away our gold, but do not have full disclosures of the deals,” explained Dr. Jailall.
During a press conference on Wednesday, Jagdeo sought to address the questions surrounding the issue.
According to Vice President, GRA has not been left out of Government’s land allocation plans; it is just more profitable for investors to have some prime lands.
He explained: “We need to bring the hotels closer to the city…We just decided that there will be three international hotels that will employ about 1500 to 3000 Guyanese there… The GRA building can go little further on the Coast so that is the idea. It’s not to take away the lands. Government services need to be accessible but we should not occupy all prime lands. We need rooms to host a proper convention. We don’t have enough accommodation for CPL. We need about 12 hotels and so that is not an attempt to deprive GRA.”
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