Chinese Labour at Marriott Construction… Sun and Sand’s use of BK Intl. exposes Brassington’s contempt for Guyanese – Harmon

By Latoya Giles

Parliamentarian Joseph Harmon

The Government’s contention that local lack of skills is one of the reasons why they picked a Chinese firm to build the Marriott Hotel is completely laughable, according to Parliamentarian, Joseph Harmon.

Harmon in an interview with this newspaper yesterday, pointed out that while the Government couldn’t find a local contractor, an Indian investor has hired BK International to construct a US$54M hotel with the same room capacity. BK International was retained as the local contractor for the multi-million dollar Sun and Sand hotel at Turkeyen.

BK has not yet started construction, which was slated to begin the week after the sod turning ceremony last month.

Government had also defended its decision to refuse Guyanese employment in the construction of the hotel by saying that having a local labour force would contribute to a language barrier between the Chinese contractors and the workers.

According to Harmon, government’s reasons are always laughable because they have always held the position that Guyana does have the skill and ability to build things. “The first time I spoke about the Marriott construction I spoke about the hundreds of Guyanese workers throughout the region,” Harmon said.

He explained that the decision by the Sun and Sand entity was nothing new to Guyana. In fact, there are persons in Georgetown who are building major hotels and don’t require Chinese labour exclusively, Harmon told Kaieteur News.

Harmon said that this blatant act shows the contempt which the government holds for its people.

“It’s like they could tell people anything and feel they could get away with it and ultimately they will have to pay for this level of contempt,” Harmon told Kaieteur News.

You cannot take the country’s money and come with “wishy washy” excuses because Guyanese are becoming less tolerant of these excuses, he stressed.

Harmon said he believes that there is still a level of opaqueness about the Marriot project. He explained that taxpayers’ money which has been spent on the project has never been accounted for.

According to him, “this is where you can see that the contract for the construction was flawed; since they did not have a requirement for Guyanese labour to be involved at any level.”

Executive Director of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), Winston Brassington, in an exclusive interview with the State’s news agency, had said that the use of Chinese labour force to construct the multi-million-dollar Marriott Hotel was just one of several conditionalities necessary for the facility’s efficient and speedy construction.

However, even though Brassington had stated this, the construction is still behind time. The completion deadline was expected to be July month end, but was not met. President Donald Ramotar at a recent press conference, could not say whether there are any cost overruns for the project, and if so, the amount.

Brassington, as Head of NICIL/Privatisation Unit, which manages Government assets, had explained that Shanghai Construction Group (SCG) won the bid from 23 other firms to carry out the construction of the Marriott.

In defending SCG’s decision to hire Chinese nationals, Brassington said that the company indicated that “(it) had examined the level of skills available (locally) for the project as well as the levels of productivity.”

They were not impressed with the skills available locally to efficiently complete the project on time.