The government is not interested in reason

May 21, 2023 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – Vice President Jagdeo and his mouthpieces would want you to believe that the Marriott Hotel was built by government in order to stimulate investment. The argument goes that Guyana needed a hotel of international standard and since there were not many foreign investors interested at the time, the government had to step in.

Jagdeo and his cronies seemed to have overlooked that construction of the hotel did not begin until November 2011. By then Guyana already had an international-standard, the Princess Hotel, which was built, with support from the government, for the Cricket World Cup.

It is therefore absurd and inaccurate to claim that the hotel was built at a time when the government was starved for investments. That could hardly be true since not only was the Princess Hotel constructed in the period preceding the construction of the Marriott but the government itself was boasting about its success in attracting investment.

In his Budget Speech for 2011, the Minister of Finance did not convey the impression that the country was starved for funds. He reported that foreign direct investment had totaled US$692 million, credit by the commercial banks to the private sector grew at an average annual rate of more than 15 percent, a total of 946 new companies were registered, and taxes paid on business profits increased by 65.5 percent over the past four years. 1.6 M.

According to statistics provided by this newspaper, the average FDI inflows increased from US$135M between 2005 and 2009 to US 294M in 2012, meaning that it doubled during that period.

The government even bragged about the increases in hotel rooms. In his 2012 Budget Speech, the Minister of Finance indicated that the hotel industry capacity had over the previous five years increased from 1,700 rooms to, 3,000 rooms at the end of 2011.

It is also not true to claim that the original intention was for government to build the hotel and then to dispose it. The forensic audit into the construction of the hotel establishes that this hotel was intended to be owned by a foreign national of New York with whom PPP/C leaders were extremely close.

It then morphed into a public private partnership. But it is hard to find a public announcement at the time the hotel was being constructed which indicated that it was the plan to dispose of its upon completion.

What was reported was that it was the intention for a Hong Kong investor to inject US$8 into the hotel and in the process acquire a staggering 67% controlling interest. This was reported in the Stabroek News of 17^th April 2015 and is evidence of the controversial nature of this hotel.

The PPP/C has always been accused of plans to build the hotel with taxpayers’ funds and loans and then handing it over to its friends and cronies. The PPP/C has denied such allegations pointing out that the hotel was owned by the Government of Guyana.

In other words, the hotel was built with taxpayers’ monies or monies which were borrowed and guaranteed by the State. Public funds were also used to divert the country’s sewage lines. A plot of land on which the hotel was erected was once a public swimming pool.

It was taxpayers’ monies which helped to build this money and it was taxpayers’ monies which had been used to service the syndicated loan payments at a time when the hotel was losing money. The hotel is now making money. So why now that the hotel is making money should the government be so eager to put in on the market?

Almost everything that the PPP/C has done in relation to this hotel has been mired in controversy. Only recently, it invited expressions of interest for the purchase of the hotel and when these expressions came in, the government said it was merely testing the market, meaning that it made a fool out of those companies which went to the trouble of submitting bids.

The hotel is now likely to be sold to one of two bidders. And thus, the profits which the hotel will generate and which should rightly go to taxpayers will now be pocketed by the new owners. This will happen unless the Guyanese people protest peacefully and demand that the hotel remains the property of the people of Guyana.

The government is immune to reasoning when it comes to keeping the hotel as a public asset. Unless, therefore, the Guyanese people take peaceful action, this profitable hotel, built with public funds, will end up in hands of some rich person.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

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• Government, Guyana, Marriott hotel, Peeping Tom, Princess Hotel

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