Atlantic Hotel Inc (AHI), the holding company for the Guyana Marriott Hotel in Kingston has advertised for a labour buyout services proposal.
In an advertisement in today’s Kaieteur News, AHI invited sealed tenders from qualified and legally registered staffing agencies and services providers for the provision of temporary personnel to support operational requirements across multiple departments.
The ad says that the successful vendor will be expected to recruit, screen and provide suitably qualified and “work-eligible (visa/work permits valid as applicable) temporary staff on an as-needed basis”.
Positions to be listed as part of the quote include housekeeping staff, cooks, security staff, sushi chef, sous chef, servers, dishwashers and cleaner, mixologist, maintenance specialists, maintenance technicians and an engineering specialist.
The successful vendor will be required to provide workers’ compensation and employers’ liability insurance with a minimum limit of $5m among other things.
Interested parties can contact Lalbhadur Singh, Multi-property Director of Human Resources for clarifications.
The notice comes amid continuing questions about the government’s plans for the Marriott Hotel amid an aborted attempt to sell it and growing competition in the hotel industry. Recent attempts by Stabroek News to elicit information from government holding company, the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) on the way forward have failed.
On May 8th last year, Vice-President Bharrat Jagdeo had said that the sale of the state-owned hotel was not a current priority for the government.
On April 24, 2024, the prospective buyer of the hotel, Egyptian-born American businessman Ramy El-Batrawi passed away at the age of 62. The process has been frozen since.
In 2023, when the hotel had been put up for sale, the government had rejected all bids from the initial round, deeming the offers too low. Six companies had submitted proposals for NICIL’s shares in AHI. In that first round, X, LLC an investment firm led by El-Batrawi offered the highest bid at US$65 million. Integrated Management Group, known locally for operating Palm Court, submitted a US$55 million bid.
Following the rejection of those bids, NICIL invited all six parties to submit new offers with a minimum price of US$85 million. The revised deadline was May 16, 2023.
In the second round, El-Batrawi’s X, LLC increased its offer to US$90 million a US$25 million increase from the initial bid. Integrated Management Group also raised its offer significantly to US$86.1 million, US$31.1 million higher than its previous bid.
The government entered discussions with El-Batrawi but he passed away before the deal could be concluded.
The Marriott hotel, a controversial project built under the Jagdeo administration with taxpayer funding and loans, officially opened its doors on April 16, 2015. Despite early financial challenges, it benefitted from accommodation contracts linked to the country’s growing oil sector. It was however unable to service its loan.
Questions have been raised about the government’s indecision on proceeding with the sale given the need for a level playing field for hotels to operate. It has been pointed out that the Marriott is yet to pay corporate taxes 10 years after opening compared to private hotels which pay such taxes every year. It has also been argued that this support to the Marriott goes against the push for local content as a foreign owned brand is involved. It is unclear if audits of the Marriott’s financials are up to date as there has been no reports circulated by NICIL or to Parliament.
Following the construction of the hotel, the APNU+AFC government had to take on the responsibility for paying off the loan that helped to finance the enterprise as it was not earning enough to service it.
