Referring to the deal under the APNU+AFC administration for the conversion of the former Ocean View International Hotel into an infectious disease hospital as potentially “incestuous,” Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo on Friday said hotelier Jacob Rambarran “will have a long wait” for any payment for the property.
Jagdeo has justified his position by saying that the new PPP/C administration plans to launch an investigation to determine how the previous government arrived at the deal and the manner in which public funds were utilitised for the hospital, which was dubbed the Centre for Disease Prevention.
“I must say he will have a long wait! A long wait! Because we believe a lot of irregularities and illegalities took place through this deal. That will be fully investigated…,” he told a press conference on Friday in response to Rambarran’s recent demand for $65 million owed in rent.
Days after the new PPP/C government assumed office, Rambarran, through the Satram & Satram law firm, informed that the government owed rent as he had never been paid for use of the property. In the letter, dated August 6th, Rambarran said if he did not receive payment of all arrears of rent within the next 14 days, he would terminate the tenancy and take steps to repossess the property.
However, Jagdeo questioned the deal Rambarran entered into while noting that there is no lease agreement between him and the government.
“The individual, who claims he owns the land, he stayed quiet throughout the several months that the media was questioning what is going on with the hospital. Suddenly, with the new government, he sends a lawyer’s letter, saying he wants to be paid millions….,” he noted.
“We have to investigate this thoroughly. We heard that the property might be in receivership. He didn’t own the property. We are very surprised how you will demand payment and you didn’t have a formal lease agreement and now claim to this government this will be the price,” Jagdeo emphasised.
He further questioned why anyone would allow construction on a property for five months and not ask for payment before reiterating that there are a lot of things that do not hold up under scrutiny and, therefore, require an investigation.
“If somebody is coming on your property and start building and you left them there for five months, now you know you don’t have a contract? There are lots of things that don’t meet the eye that are involved in this relationship and we have to get to the bottom of this and this can very well be an incestuous arrangement and they will have to answer some questions and I think that will take some time,” Jagdeo firmly said.
He noted that millions of dollars more will have to be spent on the hospital before the government will be able to use it for its intended purpose.
“…As you are aware by now [it] is not equipped to deal with this pandemic and therefore will have to either undergo major renovation of equipping and retrofitting and even that may not work,” Jagdeo said before pointing out that the building does not have the required ventilation system and other necessary features to become fully functional.
Jagdeo also mentioned that the government is exploring the possibility of using the facility to only house COVID-19 patients in isolation.
“…We are exploring a lot of those options at this time. The government spent $1.6 billion of taxpayers’ money. We will have to put the building to use even if not for the type of use intended. But you can’t expect to spend $1.6 billion of public money and we will walk away from it. That is the people money,” Jagdeo said.
In addition, he stated that if the hospital is used as a quarantine facility, the administration would not be pressed to find the staff that a full scale infectious disease hospital would need as he argued that the country does not have the human resources to get the hospital running effectively.
“The frontline workers are overworked,” Jagdeo said while noting that the Ministry of Health is now training technicians to conduct COVID-19 testing.
According to the lawyer’s letter sent by Rambarran’s attorneys, the hotel, excluding its contents was assessed in October 2018 and valued at $2,751,200,000, which is equivalent to US$13,100,950.
The lawyers said that at the time of the purported notice of acquisition of the property by the former government, their client had received offers exceeding US$15 million.
Rambarran detailed that the agreement was made with the Ministry of Public Health, which was then let into possession for a period of one year, at a monthly rental of $13 million.
In the circumstances, Rambarran is demanding the payment of all arrears due within 14 day, failing which he will terminate the tenancy and take steps to recover possession of the property.
According to Rambarran, he was approached in early April by representatives of the Ministry of Public Health, who requested the lease of the property for the purpose of establishing a facility to treat COVID-19 patients.
The man’s attorneys said that the then government told him that it urgently needed a facility to accommodate the expected increase in the number of COVID-19 patients as estimated by the Pan-American Health Organisation/World Health Organisation (PAHO/WHO).
The letter details that a number of government officials, including doctors, engineers, officers of the Guyana Defence Force, staff of the health ministry and members of the COVID Task Force visited the hotel, following which a tenancy agreement was reached.
