Ramona: Could a handful chase Sandals?

RAMONA RAMDIAL, Couva South MP, told Newsday more than just a handful of people had doubts about building a Sandals resort in Tobago, but even if it were a handful, then the withdrawal reflected badly on the Government and its processes.

She was reacting to Sandals CEO Gebhard Rainer's statement that Sandals is withdrawing interest owing to ongoing “negative publicity” and “badgering.” He spoke at a briefing held earlier by Communications Minister Stuart Young.

Ramdial, Opposition spokesman on tourism, said, “I want to refute Minister Young’s allegation that is it a handful of individuals that chased Sandals from Tobago.”

She instead alleged the Government’s incompetence and its lack of transparency, accountability and integrity in handling this project is what had chased Sandals away.

“I also think Sandals is a profit-making entity, and some of the preconditions that need to exist for their product to be profitable do not exist in Tobago.

“We saw the collapse of the seabridge and airbridge." These are needed "so you can have tourists coming in to these established and branded hotels.

"I think Sandals saw that from the beginning.”

She also said Sandals is known to drive a very hard bargain and may have asked for 25 years of concessions and then a further 15 years in future.

Ramdial said fallout may have occurred from the memorandum of understanding between Sandals and the Government being very vague and unclear and lacking in crucial information that citizens wanted to see.

“I also want to believe the Government was unable to get a partner investor to contribute to design and construct the hotel, after which Sandals would have come in and managed.”

She said the Government’s estimate of a $3 billion price-tag had been challenged by contractor Emile Elias, who estimated it at $8 billion.

“The Prime Minister in his statement to the nation had said the Treasury is empty, and I don’t think they got the investor to partner with them to come in to build that hotel.”

Ramdial reckoned the Government was now looking for a scapegoat, such as by saying, “Blame Kamla! Blame the Opposition!” She asked why they had not named the critics of the project such as the Tobago Tourism Association, Tobago Chamber of Commerce and transparency activist Afra Raymond.

“If you are labelling all of them as a handful of negativity, I want to say that is an indictment on the Government’s competence to put a strong project forward.”

Ramdial asked how much money was spent on negotiations with Sandals over the past three years and whether it had incurred any debts for things like site visits.

“Minister Young said commercial negotiations had not started, but that is also very surprising, because what were you doing for these three years?”

She felt the deal had failed because of an alleged conflict over the design between Sandals and the Government, centred on concerns expressed by the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) over the design submitted, and pointed out that environment groups in Tobago were opposed to the project.

“I want to believe the design Sandals had wanted is not what the Government had agreed and that’s where it fell through.”