Artist's impression of the Marriott Hotel

The opposition parties Monday night used their majority in the National Assembly to pass a motion calling for a halt of the flow of public funds to the Marriott Hotel project of which the government is one of the principal investors.

Government is investing some US$21M in the US$52M project through its holding company the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) which the opposition parties have charged is acting unconstitutionally.

The motion tabled by the AFC’s Khemraj Ramjattan urged “that no further expenditure be incurred by NICIL or its subsidiary Atlantic Hotels Incorporated on the Marriot Hotel Project without the authorisation and approval of this National Assembly.”

It also called for all monies in NICIL, excepting those necessary administrative costs for maintaining its running operations annually, to be paid into the Consolidated Fund.

Voting was split 33-31 in favour of the motion. However, enforcing it will be another issue since the government has challenged the basis on which the motion was premised.

The motion stated that the government was using NICIL as an instrument “to unlawfully acquire public lands and then to lease such lands, and also to spend billions of dollars of public monies into the Marriot Hotel Project so as to avoid and evade authorization and approval of the National Assembly.”

Attorney General Anil Nandlall said the charges raised by Ramjattan were more appropriate for a court matter than the National Assembly’s attention.

“Mr. Ramjattan is a lawyer of many years’ standing and his motion complains principally about acts of unconstitutionality and acts of illegality being perpetrated by the state; it begs the question, why is it that Mr. Ramjattan has chosen this parliament to bring a motion rather than challenge these manifest illegalities and palpable unconstitutionalities about which he speaks?

There must be a reason why a lawyer doesn’t want to go to court and challenge illegality and he comes here to bring a motion when we have established clearly that resolutions have no binding force on government’s policy,” Nandlall declared.

According to the AG, there is no legal challenge because it would have been rejected.

Ramjattan during Monday’s debate argued that a project of the Marriott’s magnitude should have been presented in the budget estimates and a provision sought.

“Parliamentarians would have had the ability and opportunity to ask questions based on the legend and could have done so to the minister who was bound to answer … and if they wanted to reduce or cut that item it could have been done,” he stated.

The government has said that it could not make public disclosures about the project because of a confidentiality agreement with the investors and has instead offered to brief the opposition parties fully at the Office of the President.

Ramjattan contended that the government was using NICIL as a public company to acquire state property and then reverting to a private entity to spend its money. According to him, the failure to put the monies into the Consolidated Fund was “state misappropriation.”

Housing and acting Tourism Minister Irfaan Ali accused the AFC of blocking development and of acting out of self-interest.

“This miniature political entity has now become a political lobbyist entity; it is no secret that the owner of the Pegasus Hotel who is a close friend of Mr. Ramjattan and a strong financial supporter of the AFC has been publicly driving the blockade of this major development,” he charged.

Pegasus owner Robert Badal had endorsed the AFC in the lead up to the 2011 national election. Bedlam erupted after Ali’s statement with Ramjattan rising to challenge the government MP’s statement.

Ali said the tourism sector stood to be a major beneficiary of the five-star hotel which was projected to return some GUY$6.4B or 11 percent on a 10-year holding period with NICIL’s investment setting to attract an approximate rate of return of 16.6 percent. He added that the hotel would create some 250 jobs.

APNU's Carl Greenidge who spoke after Ali said that it was not hotels that attracted tourists but rather the infrastructure.

"We have given extensive concessions and yet the number of tourists that we entertain each year is no where near the numbers associated with a small country like Barbados or St. Lucia."

Greenidge said the government's faillure on these large projects has been its failure to present the feasibilty studies in a timely manner. He added that the government's invitation to the Office of the President to discuss the project was not good enough.

"You have to provide the documentation so that independent analysis can be done and the decision of all the politicians on both sides of the divide can be informed by independent analysis and not by figures generated off the top of their heads ... it has to be able to stand the test of the light of day," the former PNC finance minister asserted.