The National Assembly last night carried a motion piloted by the Alliance for Change (AFC) to have funds devoted for the construction of the Marriott Hotel come to the House for scrutiny and to halt the project until that is done.
However the government is convinced that the thrust of the AFC’s objection to the project has everything to do with supporter of the party Robert Badal who is the owner of the Guyana Pegasus.
There was a call for a division after the result of the vote by proclamation was unclear. As was expected, the opposition outvoted the government benches on the strength of numbers and the motion was carried. The motion resolves that no further expenditure be incurred by the National Industrial and Commercial Investment Ltd (NICIL) or its subsidiary Atlantic Hotels Incorporated on the Marriott Hotel project without the authorisation and approval of the National Assembly.
In piloting the motion, AFC Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan said it was meant to get to the bottom of NICIL, which he said is becoming a quasi consolidated fund for spending. “The National Assembly is being overlooked in its oversight of public monies. Such monies ought to have come through the budget and Appropriation Act. Parliamentarians ought to have been able to vote on that item and make cuts if necessary,” he said.
He said that NICIL and the Minister of Finance are accountable to the House and are not immune to scrutiny. “NICIL and the Minister are trying to reconfigure the financial architecture,” Ramjattan said.
“This thing is incestuous and it will breed deformity,” he said, referring to the relationship between NICIL and Atlantic Hotels Inc, where the former is leasing land to the latter for the construction of the hotel at less than market price.
“There is no commercial justification for the Marriott hotel when occupancy rates are so low,” he said, adding that if the project were such a bright prospect then the private sector should have made the investment.
He said the money invested in the Marriott would be better spent on roads, drainage, cleaning the city and bolstering the tourism programme at the University of Guyana.
Rising to speak, Minister of Tourism (acting) Irfaan Ali said the intention of the AFC is to block the project. “The private sector is loud of its endorsement. The AFC is driven by self interest and protectionism,” he said.
He pointed out that NICIL was incorporated under the PNC administration during the time when Carl Greenidge was Minister of Finance.
Defending the Marriott project, Ali said there will be returns in the order of $6.4 billion over a ten-year period, with a rate of return of between 11 and 16 per cent. He was adamant that the project will directly create 250 jobs and another 100 or so indirect jobs.
Speaking on the motion, Greenidge said NICIL was not the same entity that he was involved in creating, noting that its purposes and scope had evolved.
Further, he said that the principals of the Marriott name have not sanctioned or licenced the use of the name for the hotel in Guyana. He said the reason for proposing the construction of the hotel is a back to front one, stating that it is not a hotel that brings people (tourists) but the attractions in the country and its cleanliness, among other factors. He said too that it is not the number of visitors that the government should gauge its assessment on, but the number of tourist beds per percentage of the population.
“Regarding the Marriott, we have a number of questions that remain unanswered. [We want to see] the contracts and feasibility study,” he said. “The amount of the bid is not known,” he added. He said that the equity element of the investment remains small relative to the loans and that the amount of US$21 million or so that the government is putting into the project would be subordinate debt in contrast to the senior debt that the private partners would be contributing.
He is convinced that the cost at which the hotel is being built will make the rooms uncompetitive.
When he rose to speak on the motion, Minister of Finance Dr Ashni Singh read a press release from Marriott stating that it will be associated with the hotel in Guyana.
Singh said that the government has extended and will continue to extend an invitation to the opposition to come to a closed door meeting where aspects of the feasibility story and other documentation would be revealed.
Further, the minister said that contrary to the murmurings of the opposition, NICIL can retain monies for its operation under the Companies Act and that “there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.”
Member of A Partnership for National Unity Joseph Harmon said that while the party would support projects for the greater good, it could not support projects that would benefit a few.
During his presentation, Singh called into question Ramjattan’s understanding of Article 217 of the Constitution in relation to the Companies Act. However in rebuttal, Ramjattan said it was the minister’s understanding of the article that was questionable and it could not be used to justify NICIL using the Companies Act as a cover to retain monies and not transferring them into the Consolidated Fund.
