Disclosures by the Government that it spent at least over US$50M to build the Marriott-branded hotel and isAccountant, Chris Ramnow planning to later hand over control to foreign investors for just US$8M have drawn sharp criticisms from several quarters.On Wednesday, Head of the Presidential Secretariat and Government’s chief spokesman, Dr. Roger Luncheon, admitted that the hotel is almost complete with taxpayers’ dollars being the only monies that have been spent.He added that the state-owned National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), which handles investments for Government, has mechanisms in place for investors to “reimburse” more than US$34M spent by NICIL to finance the construction of the hotel, the restaurant and the casino in Kingston. The hotel is due to be opened in a few weeks’ time.Yesterday, prominent accountant and online commentator, attorney-at-law, Christopher Ram,Wholesale Jerseys, said that Luncheon’s admission raises very serious issues about the source of the money and the legality of the transactions by NICIL, a Government company whose board is headed by Dr. Ashni Singh, Minister of Finance.Ram said that NICIL had raised millions of dollars on behalf of the Government, from among other things, the sale of preference shares to NIS in the Berbice River Bridge that realized close to US$5M, and another US$30M from the shares the Government owned since the early 1990s in the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T).Head of NICILWinston BrassingtonHigher CostsThe accountant said that the biggest questions remain the costs for the project and whom it will benefit. Ram believes that the actual cost for the Kingston hotel is much, much higher than the money already spent on the hotel. Indeed, there is the view that the US$58M being circulated by Government is highly inflated.Explaining, he said that it is evident that NICIL has absorbed significant costs in the early stage.“The government/NICIL paid for infrastructural works costing several millions. The economic value of the land has been excluded. The contractor has enjoyed a range of tax concessions estimated to value several hundred million dollars. And there is the likelihood of more costs we may not even be aware of.”While pointing out that there is a vast difference between cost and value, Ram said that the hotel has cost taxpayers much more than they have been told, a matter that should trouble taxpayers. He believes that part of the reason for excluding substantial costs is to conceal the exorbitant contract price, a point consistently made by this newspaper.“As though the abuse of the Consolidated Fund was not disgraceful enough, the intention seems still to be to sell two-thirds of the equity in the company for US$8M. Surely this cannot be right or responsible. The sensible thing to do is to have a professional valuation of the shares of the company. Such a valuation will form theBharrat Jagdeobasis of the selling price of the shares.”He added, “To understand the scale of turpitude involved one has to try unravelling the morass called NICIL. It must be more than coincidence that the Chairman of NICIL in his capacity as Finance Minister, would defy a resolution of the National Assembly calling for a special audit of NICIL,” among whose major project would be the hotel.Luncheon said on Wednesday that NICIL, which has been under severe criticisms for its handling of taxpayers’ dollars, has put up the rest of the money with the understanding that it will be repaid by the investors when court and other delaying matters are cleared up, some time in the future.On this issue, Ram pointed out that much of the money spent, if indeed not all, ought to have gone into the Consolidated Fund and spent in accordance with an Appropriation Act passed by the National Assembly.He insisted that the GT&T shares which raised US$30 million belonged to the State and not NICIL which was not free to spend the proceeds.Shares ValuationWith regards to the plan by Government to first spend taxpayers’ moneyGovernment yesterday admitted that NICIL spent all of the US$58M needed for Marriott Hotel construction.to build Marriott and committing to transfer shares later under questionable circumstances to investors at a price determined some time ago, Ram was even more scathing in his criticisms.The investors identified by what Ram described as a secret process headed by Brassington are Victor How Chung Chan and Xu Han, principals in the British Virgin Islands (BVI)-registered, ACE Square Investments Ltd.Dr Luncheon noted that the financial closure of the hotel deal had been affected by legal actions and other delays. Luncheon said that without NICIL’s intervention, it would not have been possible to advance the hotel to its completion stage.He made it clear that NICIL, a Government-owned company that specializes in investments on behalf of the State, has mechanisms in place that it will be “reimbursed”. But Ram said it is not whether NICIL will be reimbursed, it is whether the people of Guyana will be reimbursed.Government has set up a special company — Atlantic Hotel Inc. (AHI) — to handle the management of the hotel. The man who has been at the centre of NICIL’s improprieties, Winston Brassington has been listed as the sole director of AHI, at best a most unusual state of affairs and one pregnant with possibilities for continued corruption, Ram said.Under AHI’s financial arrangements, almost US$27M of the US$58M tag price was coming from a syndicated loan from Republic Bank with another US$8M coming from the equity investors from Hong Kong. The latter would have gained that controversial 67 percent control of the hotel with just an investment of US$8M.The 197-room hotel is sitting on prime property next door to Pegasus Hotel in Kingston and will boast a casino, conference rooms, restaurants and nightclub when in full operation, government says.
