Atlantic Hotel Inc. (AHI) has chided the Kaieteur News for being irresponsible as it rubbished claims made by Chartered Accountant, Mr. Christopher Ram regarding the signing of contracts for the Marriott Hotel.Kaieteur News on Tuesday, March 24 published a statement attributed to Mr Ram, in which he claims that NICIL Chairman Mr Winston Brassington “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”.

“Mr. Ram’s statement is entirely false and the Kaieteur News publication of it is completely irresponsible,” the AHI said, adding: “It has now become the habit of Mr. Ram to publish inaccurate, tasteless and often defamatory statements on his blog site with regard to Brassington and the Marriott Hotel without any reference to the facts or the truth. Ram’s statements are then readily published in the Kaieteur News regardless of their factual inaccuracy or departure from the truth.”

According to the all-purpose company in the handling of Marriott, had 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 Hotel was conducted by the Marriott Hotel Group in 2010.

Ram, the AHI said in a statement, would have also discovered that a further independent study by a highly reputed international Miami-based firm, HVS Consulting, was also conducted in 2010.

“Both of these Feasibility Studies were, therefore, presented well before Mr. Brassington on behalf of AHI, signed the construction contracts with Shanghai Construction Group (SCG) in October 2011 for the building of the Marriott Hotel. The HVS Study was subsequently updated and presented in October 2012,” the company said.

Kaieteur News itself, on May 13, 2012, in an article headlined ‘Marriott Feasibility’, quotes Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, in reporting to Parliament. The Minister told the House that: “There was market feasibility study conducted by the Marriott Hotel Group and one conducted in 2010 by an independent American firm which is being updated in 2012.”

The Kaieteur News article went on to report Minister Singh as being “willing to have a closed door presentation” of the Feasibility Study “made available under the condition of the utmost confidentiality and discussed with key Opposition members”. But the Opposition showed no interest in the offer.

“In what appears to be an orchestrated attack, we now see shadow Minister of Finance in the AFC/APNU Alliance, Mr. Carl Greenidge, rather than properly informing himself, is reported in the Kaieteur News, of Wednesday, 25th March, 2015, as stating ‘Signing of Marriott contract before Feasibility Study done – This outrageous act of disrespect must be dealt with condignly.’

WORKING CLOSELY

According to the AHI, Ram and Greenidge seem to be working closely.

“Just a few days ago, Mr. Ram went to great lengths to compare the performance of Mr. Greenidge tenure as Minister of Finance against that of Minister Singh, going to great lengths to avoid the economic depression that marked most of Mr. Greenidge’s tenure. In fact, Mr. Greenidge seems to be unacquainted with many of the facts, many of which he should be very familiar given his position as a Parliamentarian,” the company said.

In June 2010, Marriott publicly announced it would be embarking on a hotel in Guyana. In December 2011, there was a public sod-turning event. In February 2012, AFC Leader Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan asked a series of questions on the project [(Notice paper #12, (Q9, Opp9) published in Parliament on February 15, 2012].

On March 15, 2012, the Minister of Finance issued a full reply (the facts of which remain materially accurate to this day) and released a series of project-related documents including the construction contract, copies of the tax agreements covering all of the incentives for the project, and copies of the lease agreements for the land.

QUESTION & ANSWER

More specifically, as part of the questions and answers, the Minister of Finance response of March 15, 2012 (Part 111 of the said question) was as follows:

Question: Were any feasibility study and any environmental impact study done prior to agreement(s) being signed? If so, can the Minister provide a copy of each?

Answer: Yes, there was market feasibility study conducted by the Marriott Hotel Group and one conducted in 2010 by an independent American firm which is being updated for 2012. There is also a draft ESIA report which is awaiting final issuance by the EPA pending the receipt of building permission. These documents are confidential at this time; however, the Government is willing to have a closed door presentation that will allow certain details of these documents to be made available under the condition of utmost confidentiality and discussed with key opposition members without these documents being made public.

The AHI said it is not the first occasion that Christopher Ram has seriously undermined his own credibility by indulging himself in misinformed and misguided comments on his blog in reference to the Marriott Hotel and to Brassington.

On December 16 last year, Kaieteur News reported Ram wrongfully alleging on his blog that the Shanghai Construction company had benefitted from a “cut price” contract, compromising supervision over the quality of the construction of the hotel, when nothing could be further from the truth.

On that occasion, had Ram bothered to consult the contract made public since March 2012 and inform himself on the bidding process for the contract, he would have known that the contract terms provided for completely independent supervision of the construction by an international company, M. A. Angeliades based in New York, and that the contract obligates the contractor to deliver to the design and construction requirements of the Marriott Hotel Group.

Mr. Roberto Grisi, General Manager of the Guyana Marriott, who has been with the Marriott for over 25 years, following Ram’s ill-informed comments, had reason to publicly state that the construction of the Hotel, in many cases, exceeded the standards required by the Marriott.

Grisi pointed out that “our brand is very important, we have over four thousand five hundred hotels with different brands in Marriott… and the presence of Marriott in this country is very important to us”.

“AHI is proud of the fact that in spite of the typically irresponsible attempts made by Mr. Ram and his colleagues in the Opposition, the Marriott Hotel is being completed in line with budget, to the satisfaction of Marriott standards, will open to the public on 16th April, will employ some 230 Guyanese and will be a success,” the statement concluded.