CHAIRMAN OF THE Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA), Roseanne Myers, has called for transparency in the way Government-owned property is being divested.
Her comments come on the heels of yesterday’s NATION Front Page Editorial which revealed that the Government-owned Hilton Barbados had been sold for US$80 million to London and Regional Properties, a privately held Baker Street, London real estate company.
That company, which oversees luxurious properties in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States, is owned by Richard and Ian Livingston, who control Fairmont Royal Pavilion Hotel on the West Coast.
Chairing a panel discussion at the BHTA’s fourth quarterly general meeting at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre yesterday, Myers called on chief executive officer of the Barbados Tourism Investment Inc (BTII), Stuart Layne, to explain the process, insisting it should be made clear to interested Barbadian investors.
Myers put Layne, one of the panellists, on the spot, saying: “I want to ask a question with respect to the divestment of Government-owned property and the transparency that we somehow don’t see in the way that we feel that we should.
‘Explain the process’
“We have the Hilton, we have Time Out, we have Blue Horizon. Is the local investor looked at seriously as an option for taking over these Government-owned facilities, and if the process is transparent, explain the process to us.”
But the BTII boss responded: “Madame chair, I regret this is outside of my competence.”
Among the 20 questions posed in the NATION’s Editorial was: “Why did the Barbados Tourism Investment Inc., and not Needham’s Point Holdings Ltd, owners of Hilton Barbados on behalf of the Government of Barbados, handle this sale?”
Myers argued that from a BHTA perspective, it would be “a little more palatable where the Government sees the need to divest of certain entities that they own . . . if there was a clear process that says it is advertised, you send a bid, the bidding process is understood, the requirements for making that decision . . . and then there is no back talk and there is no confusion as to why something has be sold for the price it has been sold”.
She advised BHTA members to inform the association whenever they failed in a bid for such sales, and subsequently learn from the newspaper that the property had been sold.
“The only way we can help is if you tell us,” she added. (GC)
