Former Auditor General Anand Goolsarran says the procurement laws must be followed by government-owned Atlantic Hotels Inc (AHI) in the development of the US$58 million Marriott Hotel, while challenging the claim by Director Winston Brassington that the financing is a privatisation transaction.
When asked in a recent interview with Stabroek News whether the Marriott transactions should not be governed by the Procure-ment Act, Brassington said that because it is a public-private partnership, which he called one form of privatisation, it was properly carried out under the Privatisation White Paper of 2003 and not under the Procurement Act.
“Public-private partnerships are actually considered to be one form of privatisation. We generally adhere to the