Dear Editor,
In an SN article of Feb 9, Winston Brassington CEO of Atlantic Hotels Inc and NICIL, Government of Guyana (GoG) subsidiaries acknowledged that the Chinese contractor, Shanghai Construction Group (SCG) for the Marriott Hotel was entitled under the terms and conditions of its contract to employ Chinese labour at the expense of Guyanese. Further there were other juicier contract conditions given to SCG which are still to be made transparent.
It is worth noting that the Pegasus Hotel built in the 1960s was financed by British entrepreneurs and built by a British contractor, George Wimpey & Co, who except for a few key personnel employed local labour extensively throughout its operations.
GoG is a major financier of the Marriott Hotel and therefore it is obliged to ensure that the deployment of its scarce (public) resources in this project is in the best interest of its people.
Guyana has a high unemployment problem and there is no way that its economy will grow to develop the country if employment opportunities are not made accessible to its growing unemployed.
It is important that Guyanese are fully aware of the terms and conditions of the contracts which have been and/or are to be awarded for the airport extension and the Amaila Falls Hydro projects to ensure that once again they are not left out in the cold.
If indeed they are much the same, one wonders if the TUC, AFC and APNU are asleep at the wheel as they continue to fail to represent the interests of their constituents.
Yours faithfully,
Charles Sohan