The Ministry of Finance has once again turned to the Attorney General (AG) for legal guidance, this time on a casino resort bid that went astray in the ministry and was not counted among the proposals officially opened last December 6.
The ministry confirmed Thursday that a bid for Approved Integrated Resort Development (AIRD) status from Spanish hoteliers, Fiesta Jamaica Limited, was tendered at National Heroes Circle on November 29, a day ahead of the deadline.
The proposal failed to reach the team handling the bids as it was not addressed to the Project Coordinator as requested, the ministry said Thursday.
The clarification sought by Sunday Business followed the disclosure by Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips in Parliament on Tuesday that the Government was reviewing five applications.
Only four bids were opened on December 6 when, following the deadline of November 30, the Ministry asked all participants to attend the public opening of the casino resort proposals.
The four were Casino Royale Limited proposed for the Drax Hall Estate in
St Ann; Amaterra Jamaica Limited in Trelawny; Harmony Cove Limited, Trelawny; and Celebration Jamaica Limited, Montego Bay.
Fiesta's casino operation is proposed for Point in Lucea, Hanover.
"The fifth proposal was received by the ministry on Friday, November 29, 2013. The envelope was not addressed to the project coordinator, and hence, did not reach the relevant section in the ministry in time for the opening," the finance ministry said.
"Given that the records show that the document was received before the deadline, it was forwarded to the project coordinator pending further legal guidance."
This makes the second time the ministry has looked to the Attorney General for advice.
While all bids have been passed to the agent APEC Consultants for review, the ministry is unsure of its footing, because of delays in paying over the mandatory application fee of US$150,000, and has asked the AG to offer an opinion.
Only one bidder, Harmony Cove, presented the full payment at the bid opening, while Celebration said it had prepaid five years before but later cut another cheque to avoid disqualification.
The finance ministry said Friday that the AG's legal opinion on the fees and other issues was still pending.
It's unclear whether Fiesta's application fee has been paid. The ministry directed the query to APEC, whose responsible officer had not returned calls up to press time.
APEC Consultants is expected to complete its review of the bids by September for the finance minister to decide which projects will be issued with AIRD orders.
The AIRD order will qualify investors to apply for a casino licence from the Casino Commission of which only three are up for grabs.
Attempts to reach Dimitris Kosvogiannis, country manager for Fiesta and project coordinators APEC Consultants were unsuccessful.
Fiesta is a part of the Palladium Hotel Group, which covers eight brands and 48 hotel properties worldwide, and is owned by the Matutes Group of Companies.
Locally, Fiesta Jamaica operates the Grand Palladium and Lady Hamilton with 390 junior suites, 78 suites, and 48 villa suites; and the Grand Palladium Jamaica Resort & Spa, which has 540 suites on beachfront property at Point in Hanover.
The group has plans to add another 805 rooms at Point.
The casino resort licences require investors to develop 1,000 hotel rooms initially, before the licence is issued, and to produce a business plan for the additional 1,000. The investment should be no less than US$1.2 billion.
Kosvogiannis said previously that it was unreasonable for Jamaica to demand that type of capital outlay without any assurance that the investor would be issued a casino licence.