Parliament should investigate arrangement between government and Buddy’s hotel

Parliament should investigate arrangement between government and Buddy’s hotel
Stabroek News letter. Friday May 16, 2008
http://www.stabroeknews.com/?p=14381

Dear Editor,

Thanks for the news item, ‘State land leads to windfall for Shivraj,’ (SN, 14.5.08), that exposed some more of this unsettling arrangement between the government and Buddy’s hotel. It deserves a serious and comprehensive investigation led by Parlia-ment.
In countries where governments tout commitment to democracy, transparency and accountability, what the Jagdeo administration has done by using taxpayers’ money to bail out Buddy’s hotel venture in time for CWC 2007 only to have Buddy’s turn around in just over a year and sell the hotel at a huge profit, would have been the equivalent of a major national scandal worthy of bringing down the government and seeing a comprehensive probe.
According to your article, “a secret Memorandum of Understanding” was signed on the land aspect of the hotel construction project. Now, if it was signed before construction, then it certainly raises questions as to whether government was already in cahoots with Buddy’s before it came to his rescue with the hundred-plus million dollar loan. In fact, your article also pointed out that “questions had previously been raised as to how the government had decided to pick Shivraj for the construction of the hotel,” and maybe the answer to that would also reveal how the government came to the decision to rescue Buddy’s with the loan.
How can a no-bid project, undertaken by a private businessman on state land and with state’s financial assistance that ends up being sold for a huge profit, not be considered a scandal? Why were the documents not available to Parliament and the taxpaying public to scrutinize first?
This Buddy’s hotel deal was done in disturbingly deep secrecy, and even though Buddy’s has made a final sale, it still begs for a parliamentary investigation because it involved the government and taxpayers’ monies.
Parliamentarians, especially those from the opposition, owe it to the hard-pressed taxpaying people of Guyana to make a good-faith effort to get the facts concerning this entire arrangement.
Mr Editor, we all know Guyana is a poor country and a struggling democracy. Transparency and accountability, therefore, are essential for it to move from poor to privileged and prospering and from struggling to stable and sanguine.
If Buddy’s had pulled off this entire deal, from construction to sale, with his own resources and without preferential intervention and treatment from government, I would have deemed him a shrewd investor.
Also, thanks to the Jagdeo administration, other private hoteliers who borrowed huge sums from creditors and are forced to repay at high interest rates have a right to both envy Buddy’s and to cry discrimination.
I am sure they remember the President’s remarks over a year ago when he was very critical of the services they provided, hence his refusal to extend casino licences to them, as the government did for Buddy’s. But what did all of this blatant discrimination really yield?
In closing, even though I had reservations back then, I gave the government some benefit thinking it might be signalling it was supportive of Guyanese who seek to establish their own businesses at home. With Buddy’s hotel sold one year after construction and opening for business, I think the government betrayed and misled taxpayers and discriminated against other hoteliers, and the matter should be investigated.