propaganda press! freedom in Guyana

There’s a lot of slackness taking place in Guyana on a number of fronts. Take this stadium hotel issue which is now taking place where the people building this hotel are not only flouting the laws of the land, this man is a known shady character. given the present state of affairs we are not surprised that shady characters are doing big business with laundered drug money, but when we are not even concerned with the EPA on these major projects, you know we are in serious trouble

Buddy’s hotel steaming ahead though no environment permit granted
Thursday, March 23rd 2006 - Stabroek News
Buddy’s 270-room, six-storey hotel is moving full speed ahead at Providence next to the cricket stadium even though an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is first needed to determine whether a permit for this venture would be granted.

This is one of several cases in recent years where major investors have gone ahead with works with little or no reference to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). How Buddy’s was granted permission to build the hotel remains shrouded in mystery as neither Buddy’s nor the government has said anything about it.

When Stabroek News visited the scene of the construction yesterday there were at least five storeys evident. It is being constructed by businessman Omprakash Shivraj, known as Buddy. He has consistently declined to speak to Stabroek News on this project.

… senior staff at the EPA were at a loss yesterday to say how it was that two EPA notices in the Guyana Chronicle this week contained erroneous information on the permit process for the hotel and the availability of a project summary. Both Senior Environmental Officer Fianna Holder and Director of the Environmental Management Division (EMD) Eliza Florendo said that the EPA did not receive the project summary for the hotel even though an advertisement in yesterday’s Chronicle said that such a summary was available to the public. When Stabroek News checked no summary was available.

Work on the hotel and holiday resort, to accommodate guests for the upcoming 2007 Cricket World Cup began since January. The hotel being built is a six-storey facility complete with a swimming pool and a shopping mall.

Florendo said that after Shivraj applied for the permit, the EPA wrote Shivraj asking for the project summary and the other documents to support the application. She said that these were never received. Another EPA notice to the public on Monday in the Chronicle had stated that an EIA would not be required for the hotel. This was corrected in yesterday’s notice clarifying that an EIA was necessary.

Florendo said, too, that the businessman made contact with the EPA only after the construction had started on the hotel and because of this the EIA would be for the period in which the hotel is in operation and not the construction phase.

The EPA Notice to the public yesterday clearly stated that the hotel owner had submitted an application for environmental authorisation “to undertake the construction and operation of the Buddy’s International Hotel and Mall”

This notice said that since the project may have significant impacts to the environment an EIA is required before any decision to approve or reject this proposal is taken. The EIA is one of the major underpinnings of the EPA Act. Speaking to Stabroek News yesterday, Doorga Persaud, the EPA’s Executive Director said: “We saw the building going up and we called them in [to] advise them of the process.” He said that the EPA is now going through the information as provided on the application for the environmental permit. Persaud also confirmed that the EIA would cover the operation phase of the project since the construction is already far gone. He said that the EPA is not likely to order that the construction of the hotel be ceased.

According to Persaud, when the EPA receives the project summary it will be in a better position to speak of the potential environmental impacts of the project. He said that the EPA has to find out the position of the other agencies that would have had to grant permission for the development to take place.

He acknowledged that some major blunders occurred in the placing of the two advertisements and that it was clear the information in both notices was flawed. (Johann Earle)