Several large foreign investment projects which had been championed by former president Bharrat Jagdeo are now languishing despite earlier pledges that they would take off.
A key example is the construction of the US$54 million Sun and Sand five-star hotel and casino at Lillendaal, East Coast Demerara.
When Stabroek News visited the site last week, there was no evidence of any work being started. Even the weather-battered sign was nowhere to be seen. Instead, it had been replaced by a billboard for Demerara Estates gated community development.
In July 2014, there was a turning of the sod by Director of the Sun and Sand Hotels Bhushan Chandna and then president Donald Ramotar. The ceremony was also attended by Jagdeo. It was said then that construction was to begin in August. This did not happen and in September, this newspaper was made to understand that the state land on which the Sun and Sand Hotel was to be built was sold by the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GLSC) but that the company had failed to follow through on its payment schedule.
Chandna had told Stabroek News that the land was already owned by the developer and the price of the project was inclusive of this. He was not able to give the cost of the land separately.
Stabroek News was told by a member of the GLSC that at the time of the sod turning the land was still leased and had not been sold to the hotel developer.
This publication has attempted to reach out to Chandna on numerous occasions to enquire into the status of the hotel project and the company’s planned foray into logging, shipping and mining. These ventures were to be done simultaneously.
The site was previously the location for the Lakeview Hotel, a proposed five-star hotel that never got off the ground. Jagdeo had attended the sod turning for that hotel in November of 2004.
The GLSC had received an application to lease the land to the Lakeview Hotel, but since the deal fell through it was never fully processed.
The venture was met with criticism over the lack of information provided on companies investing in Guyana and the connections between a small handful of firms that were consistently being awarded government contracts, Memoranda of Under-standing (MoU) and concessions for private development under the former administration.
Eyebrows were raised when it was discovered that the DY Patil Group had signed an MoU with the Agriculture Ministry possibly early in 2013, to cultivate 65,000 hectares of land in the Canje Basin without any official release of information.
There has been no update on the status of the group’s foray into cultivation since new Agriculture Minister Noel Holder assumed office.
The Ajeenkya D Y Patil University at Turkeyen (Guyana) Inc was officially incorporated by Rajendra Singh, former chairman of the GuySuCo Board and CEO of the sugar corporation, in April, 2013.
Last year construction began at the site and the Patil Group General Manager Dilip Kawad in a statement asserted that a first class medical college was needed in the Caribbean and that establishing an institution in Guyana was due to the company’s interest in building strong links with Guyana. Kawad was responding to questions posed by Stabroek News.
Kawad had stated that the first batch of students would begin their courses in early 2015. However, the university is nowhere near completion.
During a visit to the site last week, Stabroek News saw a few workers performing menial tasks; additionally, a barricade was set up blocking vehicles from entering the compound.
Observers and commentators had raised questions about the deal struck between the former government and the Patil Group, particularly because of the latter’s connection to powerbrokers here and because that government had provided no information on it.
In December, Kawad had also sought to clarify the chairman of the group’s connection with Jagdeo, stating that both had been awarded doctorates by a reputable UK university at different times and that Patil was awarded the doctorate many years before it was awarded to Jagdeo. “The same is the case of the doctorate given by the D Y Patil University in India to… Jagdeo in view of his excellent work done,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project (AFHP) and the Specialty Hospital which were both championed by Jagdeo and shot down by the government, are back in the public purview.
Recently, Norway urged the APNU+AFC administration to consider the merits of the AFHP since Guyana stands to lose over $16 billion previously earmarked for the project if it fails to come up with a plan for “transformational” renewable energy sources that can be realised in the next few years.
Finance Minister Winston Jordan acknowledged that a viability study was to be conducted and a decision taken from there.
As for the Speciality Hospital the government is looking to repurpose the remaining US$14 million of the US$18 million Indian Line of Credit and make those funds available for primary health care while a new deal will be worked on by the two governments for the hospital.
Continuing to make headlines and awaiting government engagements are the Guyana Marriott and the Skeldon Sugar Factory.
The latter was heavily studied in the Commission of Inquiry into the Sugar Sector while the former Stabroek News understands enjoys a large enough occupancy rate to cover its expenses.
