– Gouveia says on Granger’s ‘handouts’ comment
President David Granger’s recent admonishments to the Private Sector to stop looking out for handouts is not going down well with members of the local Private Sector, some of whom have complained about being blocked from the very investments he urged them to make.
Chairman of the Private Sector Commission (PSC), retired Captain Gerry Gouveia questioned exactly what the President could mean by handouts. He noted that contrary to such a statement, the Private Sector has been an equal partner with the State.
“We have been equal partners and working in partnership with the Government, so I’m not sure what the President is referring to. That will be my comment on it,” Captain Gouveia stated when contacted.
Meanwhile, prominent businessman and SleepIn Hotel proprietor, Clifton Bacchus was even more direct in his response to the President’s statement. In a post on social media, he took the President to task and reminded everyone of his own struggles with the Government when he sought to expand.
“I have never looked to your Government or any other Government for handouts, neither do I cry about the state of the country,” he said. “I have taken the initiative and invested millions of US dollars.”
“I have borrowed heavily. I have created hundreds of jobs for locals. I pay millions of dollars in taxes annually. Yet I cannot get a casino licence, applied for four years ago, under your Government.”
Bacchus’ struggles in relation to SleepIn Hotel are well documented. He entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) back in 2015, before the Government changed hands, that catered for the hotel to be awarded a casino operator’s licence for its branch on Church Street.
The building, which has over 150 rooms, conference halls, restaurants and naturally, casino slot machines, was subsequently constructed. SleepIn then applied to the Gaming Authority in 2016 for its license, reportedly paying a fee of G$9 million in the process.
Months later, it received correspondence from the Authority that its casino operator and premises licence applications were refused. Gaming Authority Chairman Roysdale Forde has subsequently alluded in sections of the press to financial deficiencies in SleepIn’s applications as the reason for turning them down.
Bacchus’ lawyer, former Attorney General Anil Nandlall took the Gaming Authority to court last month in a bid to have them step in and ensure the authority processes Bacchus’ application. That case will come up before Justice Fidela Corbin on November 13, 2019.
Handouts
President Granger on Friday said that local businesses need to stop looking for handouts and crying out about the economic state of the country. Instead, he suggested that they invest in key sectors such as manufacturing and agriculture in order to prosper.
Speaking on a local radio programme, the Head of State posited that his Administration has put in place incentives for local businesses, such as reducing taxes – both Value Added (VAT) and corporate – and incentivising key sectors. Despite this, however, he noted that business owners are complaining instead of being innovative and making new investments.
“The businessmen must turn their attention to innovation and to investment and to building the infrastructure. I am not criticising them but businesses can’t prosper on handouts. They have to take the risks and they have to invest. I am not seeing that investment,” the President noted.
Following his comments, Presidential Candidate for the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Dr Irfaan Ali, had disagreed with the Head of State’s position, calling such a statement “unfortunate”.
He had pointed out that the local Private Sector has played a critical role in growing and expanding the Guyanese economy in several hurdles and periods.
“The Private Sector had to be innovative and strategic at that time in the country to achieve such success… We need to stimulate growth in the Private Sector so that they can expand and create more opportunities and higher-paying jobs for more Guyanese.”
“So we can’t say on one hand that our Private Sector is not equipped to grab the opportunities for the future and on the other hand, we’re not giving them the incentives – the fiscal, monetary and tax incentives – to make them capable, to equip them to grab those opportunities and create the wealth here,” Ali posited during an interview on Friday last.
