Jagdeo shuts down secrecy claims on Marriott Hotel sale
Kaieteur News has once again come under scrutiny for spreading false narratives and creating controversy regarding the sale of Guyana’s Marriott Hotel, which has been in the public domain ever since the government began the process in December 2022.
At a press conference on Thursday at Freedom House, Georgetown, People’s Progressive Party General Secretary, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo provided facts surrounding the hotel’s sale.
It was highlighted that the administration through the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL)went through a public tender in search of possible investors.
“We went to public tender; we got two bids – $55 million and $65 million. He (Glen Lall) said we should sell it for $55 million because it’s a Guyanese … we went out back to tender again, and this is all in the public domain at these press conferences. You now have a bid for $90 million. I said to people we’re wrapping up this bid … every step of the way we informed the public,” he explained on Thursday.
“This is the same Glen Lall who had been saying that he knows about some phantom investors who own the Marriott,” added the general secretary while making it clear that this was a total lie.
Dr Jagdeo had even challenged the paper’s publisher Glen Lall to present any evidence to corroborate his claim that private investors are behind the funding of the Guyana Marriott.
“He couldn’t prove a single one (claims), he came to a press conference, I said to him that I would leave this job if he could find a single phantom investor or owner, so he was exposed there,” the GS expounded.
The US$52 million Guyana Marriott was commissioned in 2015 and its construction was funded through public investments and a US$27 million syndicated loan from Republic Bank Ltd.
The government invested US$30 million through the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), and owned the hotel via Atlantic Hotel Inc. (AHI), a special-purpose company established to build the hotel.