Oliver was a workaholic

I have had the pleasure of working with Oliver closely whilst carrying out the mandate of divesting the hotels.

At that time the tourist industry was in the doldrums and the Government had decided to divest and revert the hotels to the private sector. The Prime Minister assigned Oliver and myself to carry out this exercise. Oliver at that time was the Chairman of the National Hotels and Properties Limited and I was the Chairman of the Divestment Committee.

I thoroughly appreciated Oliver?s approach and his enthusiasm with getting on with this assignment and particularly his meticulous planning in our endeavour to have the matter completed expeditiously.

It became obvious to me, that Oliver was a workaholic as early - very early - morning meetings were the order of the day.

He demonstrated to me that he was a person of supreme integrity and was not prepared to take directions from politicians whilst carrying out this task. This became evident when a Minister of Government purported to give instructions to dismiss an employee on his staff as being a member of the opposition party. Oliver indicated to me that he had no intention of so doing with which I concurred. Needless to say the employee provided invaluable service to us. Oliver was always conscious that time should be well spent in carrying out the objectives and not wasting time unnecessarily.

We reviewed the matter and came to the conclusion that the investors would be found on foreign shores. We had appropriate brochures and audited accounts prepared and then set off in pursuit of same. We first had discussions in Miami and thereafter in New York.

In New York, we were interviewed by the press and held discussions with other potential entrepreneurs. We then discovered there was a rumour circulating that the Jamaican Government had confiscated the hotels without compensation. We vehemently rejected this and indicated that that this was not possible under the Jamaican Constitution.

From New York, we went to Toronto, Canada and Oliver ensured that the schedule for all locations was tight and got designed to get through as many interviews as possible. This was achieved by sharing interviews between the two of us. Thereafter, we proceeded to London and then on to Paris and Milan, where possible lessees were interviewed.

The Committee then decided which investors should be further contacted with a view to concluding business with them.

Oliver proved himself to be an extremely, excellent negotiator and we were able to conclude very beneficial agreements.

However, I received a letter from Prime Minister Seaga indicating that we should not divest the hotels by way of outright sales but only lease as the Government wanted to retain a proprietary interest in them. Hence we entered only into leases at that time.

All the time spent on this important exercise lasting over a period of several months which we rendered gratuitously.

R.NA. HENRIQUES