Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jan 30, 2015 Letters
Dear Editor,
I don’t know what Mr. Nowrang Persaud’s area of professional expertise is, but his letter, “Poaching vs. Competitive Recruiting,” (KN, January 29), that defended the alleged tactic of the Marriott hotel owners to ‘headhunt’ employees from existing hotels, smacks of gross ignorance of the true role of government, using regulations, in creating the environment conducive for the private sector to emerge as the engine of economic growth.
Government gets taxes from businesses and employees to help run the government and provide specific services via government agencies, but for government to take taxpayers’ money and pump it into businesses that should have been left to the private sector, creates an unfair and uneven playing field, because private investors have to either use money from their reserves or borrow from banks and repay with interests. If government invests in the private sector and the investment goes bust, it is the taxpayers who lose.
And for Mr. Persaud’s guidance, it was former President Bharrat Jagdeo, on whose watch the Marriott was born, who strangely declared at Banks DIH’s 50th Anniversary celebrations that Government cannot deliver on economic growth but can only create the environment and give targeted support where appropriate, (“Visionary business leadership translated into real results – President Jagdeo notes at Banks DIH 50th Anniversary,” GINA, September 10, 2005).
“For too long in Guyana, we had a situation where the Government involved itself in almost all economic activities, and we continue to suffer from the damage caused by this bankrupt and arrogant approach.”
The President then posited that no Government he leads will ever allow the country to return to the days where the Government tried to be all things to all people, and in so doing, sapped the spirit of entrepreneurship throughout the country.
Compare those remarks and the ensuing behavior of the Jagdeo regime as it embarked on so-called private-public partnerships using up taxpayers money, compared to minimal investments by certain private investors who would then become majority stakeholders and reap massive rewards, and you will see why the government’s behavior of poaching employees from other hotels to work at the Marriott ought to be roundly condemned.
Whatever happened to all the so-called training the Marriott was supposed to be doing? Or does the Marriott feel it is cheaper to poach trained and experienced employees and, in the process, destroy other hotels? And how can the Private Sector Commission sit on its mouth while the government is undermining private sector members?
Even APNU Leader, Mr. David Granger, said, “It is my view that much of the development of this country has to be done by the private sector,” (“Government should not compete with the private sector,” KN, February 4, 2014). Mr. Granger was at the time commenting on the statements made by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) Radha Krishna Sharma when he articulated in a previous Kaieteur News article that Government has no business in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Sector. Does Mr. Persaud know of the amount of taxpayers’ money lost in this venture that lacked requisite expertise? Again, it is taxpayers who are paying for this blunder!
I am amazed that after all the information about the Marriott anyone can still ignorantly comment in support of the venture, and especially at the expense of private investors who must repay loans and find money for operating costs of their businesses, compared to a government that took taxpayers’ money and invested it in a business to compete with other businesses, disregarding the impact of any loss should the Marriott go bust!
Mr. Persaud needs to know that the Jagdeo regime loaned ‘Buddy’ Shivraj GY$168M of taxpayers’ money to hasten completion of his hotel, now called the Princess, in time for CWC 2007. After CWC 2007 was over, Buddy encountered problems repaying the loan because of low occupancy rates, and was forced to enter into an arrangement for government to rent rooms in lieu of repayments. Within a year of construction, Buddy sold the hotel because of low occupancy rates.
Now, having witnessed what happened to Buddy’s how can Jagdeo logically defend his decision to approve investing taxpayers’ money again in another hotel? Is it because it is not his personal money, so he does not care?
Further, when he bashed the Pegasus before approving the Marriott, he raised suspicion that this investment was all about spitefulness to destroy the Pegasus. But to go a step further and poach the Pegasus’ employees is no longer a question about suspicion.
Finally, for Mr. Persaud’s information, NICIL was set up as a private company under former Finance Minister, Mr. Carl Greenidge, in July 1990, to handle divestment of state entities or those kept by the government, which makes NICIL 100% government owned. Between 1994 and 2001, NICIL paid GY$2.3B to the Treasury and between 2002 and 2011, GY$9B, so why did Jagdeo knowingly allow NICIL to invest US$58M of taxpayers’ money in the Marriott after declaring at Banks DIH that no government he leads would ever engage in private sector investments?
The Guyanese taxpayer-funded US$58M Guyana Marriott price tag is also much higher compared to the US$23M spent on the Jamaica Marriott, which, unlike Guyana, was privately funded! There was also full disclosure on the Jamaica project versus little disclosure on Guyana project!
Emile Mervin
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