Former President Donald Ramotar says he had no choice but to rescind a casino licence granted to Indian developers of the planned US$54M Sun and Sand Hotel, since after one year and many promises there was no sign of work to make the venture a reality.
“I explained to them that since they had not met, or even begin for that matter, the requirements of what was needed for such a licence, they could not get it,” Ramotar told Stabroek News yesterday.
Former President Bharrat Jagdeo had been key in the Indian company setting up here. He had even attended the sod turning event for the hotel in July of 2014, which was done with Ramotar and the principals of the company.
The Sun and Sand Hotel chain is not to be confused with the five-star Sun-n-Sand Hotel chain operating out of India; the latter has a website and numerous reviews on travel blogs, while the former has none.
This group is an affiliate of the Sun and Sand Mining Resources that has applied to mine lands in the Cuyuni/Mazaruni area for a project named Quartz Stone Gold Project, B-45.
That project has been heavily criticised by letter writer Faoud Khan, who says that the company has been registered in the United Kingdom since September 2011 with an authorised share capital of £100 (one hundred British pounds) or approximately G$31,000.
“There is currently one director of this company who is recorded as residing in India. This company since its inception and registration in the United Kingdom has not had any commercial activity. Since its inception, it was twice brought to the brink of being struck off the Register of Companies in the United Kingdom due to failure to file basic information, called the Annual Return. On both occasions they were saved from being struck off after these returns were completed after a Gazetted Notice was issued on both occasions,” Khan wrote, in a letter published in Stabroek News.
The Sun and Sand Hotel venture was also met with criticism over the lack of information that is provided on companies investing in Guyana and the connections between a small handful of firms that are consistently being awarded government contracts, Memoranda of Understanding and concessions for private development, especially under the Jagdeo administration.
Sources told this newspaper that Jagdeo was not pleased at the position taken by Ramotar, to inform the company that the licence would be taken away and given to a local, who had shown promise and evidence of investment in the same industry.
The sources close to the Indian company said that the company has since lost interest in the hotel industry here but has turned to other revenue making avenues.
This newspaper tried making contact with the Sun and Sand principals but calls to their telephone numbers and emails sent were unanswered.
Stabroek News was also told by an official of the Guyana Lands and Survey Department that the land proposed for the hotel’s location, located along the Liliendaal Railway Embankment near the Arthur Chung Convention Centre, has been in default and has been returned to the state.
When this newspaper visited the site yesterday, even the once tattered sign that indicated the details of the project was removed. It is being used to graze cattle and one cattle farmer, who uses the spot and also lives nearby, said that no work had been done since the sod turning.
“Dem been come and tell we that we can’t bring we cow no more and had one big thing, weh de president and Jagdeo did come …since that very day no more story here. People wait and they start dumping rubbish and we start come back with the cow them,” he said.
‘Local investor’
Ramotar said before he made the decision to inform the company of the decision, he had requested updates and subsequently received reports that no work was done. He said another report was had shortly before his visit to India in January of 2015. “The company was told, in India, that I was not satisfied with what was happening here… up to January, 2015 and nothing was done, so I would have been foolish to let that go on and no evidence that they would keep their promise,” he said.
“I even explained to them that the licence would be given to a local who had invested a lot of money here, had shown a lot of confidence in the local economy and was running an exemplary business. I felt that my decision was right. When I realised that they were not doing anything I decided to sign an MoU with that local business and to date they have held their end of the bargain,” he added.
He also said that he has heard and read of criticisms by businessman Omprakash ‘Buddy’ Shivaraj that he (Ramotar) had signed a MoU for a casino licence for one of his establishments on Sheriff Street then withdrew it.
“I never signed an MoU with Shivraj for any casino licence. Shivraj had a licence for the Buddy’s Hotel and he sold it to the Princess people. Why would I, knowing that, grant him another one? I am not giving casino licences for people to sell as a money making business”, the former president declared.
