Marriott is a choke-and-rob deal – Harmon
President Donald Ramotar had in March said “I don’t think you (the media) will have to wait much longer” for word on the identity of the private investor who is plugging US$8M into the Marriott hotel. But, well over a month later, the nation still awaits the revelation.
Even the Opposition has not yet been let in on the “secret” of who this private investor is. A Partnership for National Unity (APNU)’s Shadow Minister of Public Works, Joseph Harmon, yesterday expressed total dissatisfaction at the fact that even though the time is drawing near for the opening of this hotel, the government is still withholding the name of this key investor.
Harmon noted that his party was since last year pushing to get answers about the mysterious investor, but the President said that because of the nature of this investment, the government does not wish to make certain information known.
Harmon said that if the government will have a project like this come into completion without making known the investor, it reflects the level of contempt the government has for the people of Guyana.
APNU’s Joseph Harmon
With reference to the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL)’s US$4M investment in the Marriott, Harmon said “we have money invested in that project so we have to know what is happening.”
The APNU Member of Parliament (MP) said NICIL used public monies “without our permission.”
“If it were a case where only private investors, using their own monies, invested in the Marriott, I wouldn’t say anything. But when you would take my money (NICIL investment) in a situation almost like a choke-and-rob scenario, and invest it in a project without me having a say, I then have a right to express my opinion and a right to know who the investors are.”
“This country is bordering on dictatorship by the PPP government, but they must be put on notice that people are not going to take it lightly. I, for one, will not sit and live under any dictatorship in this country in 2014 and going forward.
Harmon said his party has suspicions about who is the private investor, but awaits confirmation.
The initial financing structure for the construction of the Marriott Hotel was that NICIL would have invested its US$4M through Atlantic Hotel Inc. which it set up as a special purpose company for Marriott.
NICIL also lends the project US$15.5M and Republic Bank Trinidad was asked to syndicate US$27M while the still-to-be-named investor is to invest US$8M.
But in March President Ramotar provided an entirely different financing structure for the Marriott Hotel.
Ramotar said that there is a “consortium of people that have put money into it.”
He told reporters then that as a result, there is money to continue works as government ties up “small arrangements.”
To date, however, only NICIL’s US$19.5M has been officially stated to be put into the project. There is yet to be financial closure on the money coming from the private investor, after which the Republic Bank money is expected to be put in.
NICIL is a private shareholding company of which government is the only stakeholder.
