Why sell the Marriott now?

Dec 24, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News – December is becoming a month of more than the long holiday season in Guyana. December is now taking on the appearance of a period in the year during which the PPPC Government delivers these smartly wrapped packages for the Guyanese people. The truth is that when a closer look is taken at the PPPC’s gifts, they benefit the giver more than those who are supposed to be the recipients. In this case, the giver would be the people in government, who concoct their cunning schemes, and then like some midnight Santa Claus drops them in the laps of unsuspecting Guyanese. The latest gift from the government is the sudden announcement of this startling sale of the Marriott Hotel.

The intended sale of the Marriot follows a now part of an established pattern in December. First, there were and ongoing PPPC Government gifts to citizens of pay raises, and one-offs, on a unilateral basis. Last year, there was the National Resource Fund squeezed through the National Assembly during the final days of December when most Guyanese were busy celebrating and have little interest in what goes on in that house. As expected, that low, clever move has turned out to be a bonanza for the PPPC Government and its schemers who dream up ways to use, misuse, and abuse the Oil Fund money almost at will, and without penalty. The all-purpose name the brainy government people have for tricky Oil Fund uses is “national development priorities.” This year, the December surprise comes in the form of readying to sell the profitable Marriott.

Mention the name Marriott in Guyana, and the knowing smiles flow reflexively. The Marriott was, and still is, seen as a development to house great secrets and the great deals cut with great friends of the PPPC Government. Old PPPC, new PPPC, it is the same sleazy story of secrecies and trickeries, and the Marriott stands close to the top of those piles. Hundreds of millions of dollars from Guyanese taxpayers were spent to push ahead with, and make possible, the existence of the Marriott. The government ended up owning the shares of the Marriott Hotel when default on its obligations threatened. Then, it was reported to be profitable, and with the advent of oil, and the return of the PPPC to power, the Marriott is the place to be, to be seen, and to wheel and deal.

Its occupancy rate has to be at capacity most of the time these days, given the limits of quality hotel accommodation in Guyana at this time. In addition, there is a constant stream of customers with hordes of business people, scouts, and adventurers from all over the world rushing here to sniff out any action that they could be up for grabs. Because of this alone, it does not seem to be sound business judgment to be selling a hotel that is reported to be profitable. Though there have not been any financial reports shared with Guyanese for the last several years; this is despite the Government of Guyana being the owner of the Marriott Hotel, which means that Guyanese own it. Yet they are in the dark, and only now to be informed that it is up for sale.

Why sell a business that is supposedly profitable, one that was hailed by the PPPC Government as a “transformational project” notwithstanding the half billion Guyana dollars in debt that has to be repaid annually? Who was it really “transformational” for? Why not use the Marriott as a showcase of the depth of PPPC Government visions, and of leadership will and ‘can-do’ attitude?

Because the people of this country have been burned so badly and so often by a tricky, devious PPPC Government, it is our belief that there is a more pointed question to be asked. What new trick is at work here with this December announcement of preparing to sell the Marriott? When a government and its main operators have compiled a shabby record of costly deceptions and endless skullduggeries, this is what citizens inevitably conclude. Those who benefited extravagantly from the inception with this “transformational project” like pigs at a banquet now stand to benefit even more through underhanded dealings.