Marriott Hotel profits can hike all public servants’ salaries by 10% every year – Glenn Lall

Jan 01, 2023 News

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…Says Govt. lining-up one of its cronies to buy hotel

Kaieteur News – Ahead of the impending sale of the lucrative Marriott Hotel by the Guyana Government, transparency advocate and businessman, Glenn Lall believes that the profits currently being made by the hotel can hike public servants’ salary by 10%, but the Irfaan Ali administration is determined to sell it to one of their cronies.

In a special message first published on his Tiktok account, Lall said the current profits on Marriott alone can give 10% increase to all Public Servants every year, yet the government was hell bent on selling it.

Only recently Former Finance Minister, Winston Jordan called for the release of the hotel’s financial documents to give Guyanese a clear picture as to whether selling it would be a plus or minus for Guyana.

In an interview with Kaieteur News Jordan had described the advertised sale of the hotel as “interesting” given the dilemma involving the project’s realisation. He indicated that a lot of money was needed to correct defects at the hotel and even more to service loans taken by the project’s handlers. It is unclear what position the hotel is in, and the former Minister believes that information should be communicated to the public.

Lall for his part said that the Marriott with 197 rooms was built with an ill-gotten plan in mind. According to Lall, the Publisher of the Kaieteur News said from the time the first block was laid on that structure, his newspaper reported many times “it was for the boys, it was only a matter of time for them to snatch it out we hands. When it opened for business in 2015, the hotel couldn’t even pay its light bills, that was how bad the investment was on hotels at that time in Guyana. Thank goodness the Coalition won the elections and kicked out the secret players that were installed inside through Republic Bank Trinidad and APNU+AFC took over the hotel in full.”

Lall continued, “Then God smiled on Guyana with the oil discovery and the hotel began seeing its way, this eased the burden on our tax dollars.

Now the PPP is back with the same old tricks, them say the hotel is for sale…” Lall cautioned Guyanese to watch and wait “and see whose hands it will land in.”

The Kaieteur News publisher asked, “who in their true and righted sense would sell out the best milking cow in their pasture?” “Marriott is now a money-making machine and President Irfaan Ali is allowing it to disappear from our hands.”

Fully booked  

Lall disclosed that the hotel has been fully booked for a long time now, “at US$200 a night, we are talking about US$15M a year, take out a third of that as maintenance and salary, US$10M profit a year, see what kind of money we talking about there.”

According to Lall, US$10M is more than 10% salary increase per year for all public servants, police, teachers, soldiers, nurses and if the room rate doubles to $400 a night “you can give all the public servants 20% increase every year alone on that Marriott profits.”

Money-making machines

Meanwhile, making possible links as to whose hands the hotel can fall into, Lall recalled that months after Bharrat Jagdeo had become President in 1999, he sold to Ranjisinghi ‘Bobby’ Ramroop for “next-to-nothing” the entire Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation.

At the time Lall said the then state company used to rake in decent foreign exchange for this country through the exportation of its popular Whizz, Limacol, Nutrophus, Ferrol and other products. “From then on, right up to 2015, Ramroop and his companies were given the bulk of all the drug contracts to the tune of billions and was being paid hundreds of millions to store the Ministry of Health drugs in the same GPC bond that Jagdeo sold to him.”

Additionally, Lall said Jagdeo did not stop there, he proceeded to spend hundreds of millions of tax dollars to renovate and fix up the Sanata Complex which was worth US tens of millions in West Ruimveldt and again sold it to Ramroop at a bargain price.

“Like the Sanata Complex, the bulk of the money to build the Berbice Bridge came from our tax dollars, yet Bobby Ramroop company is the single largest shareholder in it, reaping the hog of the profits.” Further, days before Jagdeo left office in 2011, he granted television, radio and cable licenses to the Ramroop Group of Companies.
Lall reminded too that Ramroop had put in a proposal to buy out the Bourda Cricket Ground, but after the letter was leaked to him and the Kaieteur News exposed the story, the plan was abandoned.

“The 20% shares Guyana owned in GTT, that used to give Guyana $US2.5M a year, Jagdeo sold it out and on to this day, the Guyanese people don’t know whose hands those shares went into – we were told it’s a Chinese company, that’s it, we are still to receive a missing US$5M on that deal. The Amaila Falls Hydro Project that Jagdeo wanted to push down our throats, telling us it’s a Chinese investment, read through the lines,” Lall cautioned Guyanese. He also raised suspicion about the New Demerara Harbour Bridge. The administration said on Friday that it will be seeking a loan from the Chinese Government to build the project.

In 2017, during a state media broadcast, Jordan had said that massive misspending by the current Government appeared to be “more than just mistakes” and advocated for some type of accountability. He said that the Government was at the time saddled with a large debt despite putting a large amount of equity. He had highlighted the Marriott project and the Skeldon Factory, another failed expensive Government venture, at the time. He said the David Granger Government was forced to “take over Republic Bank’s debt of US$17.7M to repay because the Atlantic Hotel Incorporated (AHI) was broke and had no money.” He said too that on that project alone the Government had to find another Guy$5.3B to fix defects on the hotel.

Marriott was opened in 2015 to be a first class branded hotel. It is owned by the Government through the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) but was owned by bankrupt Atlantic Hotel Inc. (AHI), a special purpose company established by NICIL. To prevent the hotel from being acquired by Republic Bank, the Granger Government transferred AHI’s financial obligations to the Central Government costing taxpayers US$1.1 million ($226 million) every six months since 2017 to service the entire US$27 million loan for 13-years.In the advertisement announcing the sale NICIL said it is seeking Expressions of Interest (EOIs) from persons or companies, individually or as part of a joint venture / consortium, with an interest in purchasing its shares in AHI for the acquisition of the Guyana Marriott Hotel. Pre-qualification must include financial capability in terms of net worth, audited financial statements for the last three financial years), net worth minimum (approximately US $250 million), and letter of financial capability from a recognized financial institution(s) to acquire NICIL’s shares in AHI for the Guyana Marriott Hotel.

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