Golding moving full speed ahead
Published:Wednesday | February 2, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter
PRIME MINISTER Bruce Golding has snubbed calls from the parliamentary Opposition and the contractor general to halt the sale of the Sandals Whitehouse hotel.
Golding also declared his Government would be pressing along with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) project despite calls from the Opposition for it to be halted. Responding to questions in the House of the Representatives yesterday, the prime minister said the Government was committed to the sale of the hotel to the Gordon 'Butch' Stewart-led Gorstew group.
He also revealed that Stewart last week gave a verbal undertaking that his entity would drop a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the Government, from which it is seeking to purchase the hotel.
Sandals, a hotel chain operated by Gorstew, had filed lawsuits for damages against government entities with which it partnered to build Sandals Whitehouse, claiming damages as a result of cost overruns and damage to brand.
Sandals has claimed US$28.9 million for special damages as a result of the late delivery of the hotel, general damages for alleged damage to the Sandals brand, as well as interest and costs.
Golding yesterday said the sale of the hotel was not married to Gorstew shelving its claim for damages.
"The sale is not contingent on the dropping of the suit. We are treating them as two separate issues. We took a decision to sell the hotel at a particular price because it is costing us money and we need to cut the loss," he said.
The commitment from Stewart, however, is not in writing but the prime minister said he expects to have it in that form by the weekend.
Pm won't yield
Responding to Opposition Tourism Spokesman Dr Wykeham McNeill's query about whether the Government would yield to a call from Contractor General Greg Christe to delay the sale of the hotel until he conducted a special investigation, Golding said he would have none of that.
"The contractor general has an authority to investigate any matter that he considers worthy of investigation, and he is at liberty to make any such recommendation as he chooses," the prime minister said. "The contractor general in this instance is making a recommendation prior to the conduct of those investigations. The business of the Government cannot be punctuated in that kind of way."
Meanwhile, on the issue of LNG, Golding said his administration was committed to correcting the deficiencies identified by consultants who examined the feasibility of the project.