Marriott Guyana pushing for April 16 opening as local contractors hired

Marriott Guyana pushing for April 16 opening as local contractors hired

The Guyanese tax payer funded Marriott Hotel is expected to officially open its doors in mid April. The opening has been running behind schedule and sources close to the company have indicated that the contractors and management of the hotel are pushing for an April 16, 2015 opening date.

There are also reports the Atlantic Hotels Incorporated, which will serve as the owner of the hotel, was forced to hire a local contractor to wrap up the work for the completion of the hotel.

But the Chairman of Atlantic Hotel Incorporated, Winston Brassington today said that the SCG company which is the Chinese contractor for the hotel project, still “remains the contractor on site and fully so”.

In a Facebook post responding to a statement from Attorney Nigel Hughes, Mr. Brassington said over the last year, increasing use of local inputs “has been made with our support”.

“The use of a local contractor firm to assist with completing the punch list is ongoing, particularly since there was a reduction of the Chinese work force during the Chinese New Year celebrations, which recently concluded”, Brassington said.

He noted that other local firms have been used and continue to be used in various aspects of the works for the completion of the hotel. According to the AHI Chairman,  all of these works are being paid by SCG as part of their contract.

“Marriott is already training over 150 staff members at the hotel who occupy many of the sections and the hotel will open shortly. All parties involved have recognized the high quality of work that has been executed by the contractor; it is quite usual for a punchlist to be produced at the end and these works remedied, which is what is largely occurring inside the hotel”, Brassington said in his Facebook post. 

Hughes was raising the issue that a Guyanese contractor had been hired to complete the work of the hotel construction when initially the company had pulled in the services of a Chinese contractor who brought in their own workers from China for the tax payer funded project.

The Marriott Hotel is being built at a cost of US$51 Million and the government recently announced that it will most likely be footing that entire bill after it failed to attract private investors for the project.

The political opposition parties have raised concern about the amount of money being thrown behind the project from the coffers of the state.

(GC Photo)

Filed: 10th March 2015

 

 

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