WE refer to the letter from Mr. Christopher Ram published in the Stabroek News (27/3/15) captioned “Contrary to what Brassington says, the feasibility study for the Marriott was submitted after the contract had been signed”.We are surprised and disappointed that the Stabroek News should see fit to publish Mr. Ram’s letter having decided not to publish the AHI press release of 25th March to which Mr. Ram’s letter refers.
Our press release, in fact, pointed out that the statement attributed to Mr. Ram, in the Kaieteur News publication of 24th March, 2015, taken verbatim from Mr. Ram’s blog, that Mr. Winston Brassington had “signed contracts for the (Marriott) Hotel since in October 2011, but only had
the critical feasibility study done by a Miami-based consulting firm in September 2012”, is entirely false.
Mr. Ram’s letter, which you published without your readers having the benefit of our release, persists, falsely, that his statement was correct and attempts to offer as evidence, pictures of “a letter dated October 1st, 2011 addressed by Mr. Brassington to Mr. Michael Zhang, Managing Director of S.C.G International Inc. which was awarded the contract to build the Hotel” and “the two front pages of a report of a feasibility study dated September 2012 of the project submitted to the Chairman, Atlantic Hotel Inc., Mr. Brassington”.
Mr. Ram has chosen, in his letter, to deliberately ignore the facts presented in our press release, which you did not publish, which points out that “Had Mr. Ram been less intent on character assassination and less given to propaganda, instead of professional analysis and research, he would have discovered that the first market Feasibility Study undertaken with regard to the building of the Marriott Hotel was conducted by the Marriott Hotel Group in 2010. Mr. Ram would have also discovered that a further independent study by a highly reputed international Miami based firm, HVS Consulting, was also conducted in 2010”.
Our release also quoted at length from Notice Paper No 12 of the Tenth Parliament on 15th February 2012, which records the Minister of Finance responding to questions from the Opposition on whether there was any Feasibility Study done prior to any agreements being signed. The Minister’s response was: “Yes, there was a market Feasibility Study conducted by the Marriott Hotel Group and one conducted in 2010 by an independent American firm which is being updated to 2012”.

SELINA HARRIS