Sandals Whitehouse sale raises eyebrows

The Office of the Contractor General (OCG) has turned its spotlight on the reported planned sale of the Sandals Whitehouse hotel in Westmoreland.

The OCG wrote to the Government Monday to query if there was any truth to the report which surfaced in the latest edition of The Sunday Herald that talks were under way for the property to be sold to the Gordon 'Butch' Stewart-led Sandals Group, which now operates the hotel.

The article quoted businessman R. Danny Williams as stating that he "was asked by the parties to act as facilitator for the sale of the property, and we have been talking since June, but nothing has been finalised".

According to the OCG, if reports of the talks are true, it wants a broad range of information and documentation regarding the proposed divestment.

The OCG noted that in January it wrote to Cabinet secretary, Ambassador Douglas Saunders, seeking a comprehensive list of all government assets that were slated for divestment for the 2010-2011 financial year.

"In his letter of response of February 16, 2010, Ambassador Saunders had provided the OCG with a listing of more than 80 government-owned assets which were earmarked for divestment.

"However, neither the February 16, 2010 listing, nor any subsequent updates thereto, has identified the Government's interest in the Sandals Whitehouse hotel as being among the publicly owned assets which were/are slated for divestment," the OCG said in a press statement Monday.

The OCG explained that it requested the information on the planned divestment from Saunders to facilitate its monitoring of the process in keeping with its statutory mandate.