Gov’t panellists pressed to explain why public money to be used in Marriott project

Winston Brassington

Lone Opposition party member at last evening’s edition of the corruption debate on NCN, Khemraj Ramjattan of the Alliance For Change challenged members of the opposite panel to justify why it was Guyana was spending monies on the Marriott Hotel and asked if the project was so feasible why private entities did not finance it entirely.

Following from Sunday’s first programme which looked at the Amaila Falls Hydroelectric Project, yesterday’s programme was the second in a seven part series to address claims of  corruption in Government projects put on by NCN. The panel comprised Head of National Industrial and Commercial Invest-ments Limited (NICIL), Winston Brassington; Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh; Government Advisor on Empowerment, Odinga Lumumba on one side and Ramjattan and former Chairman of the Private Sector Commission, Gerry Gouveia. Absent was a representative of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU).

Ramjattan argued that with the proposed financing arrangement of a syndicated loan and senior debt, the project could then be sold to one of the Government’s “cronies” leaving the