HGP Nightly News – Minister of Amerindian Affairs Sarah Browne has confirmed that $500 million has been approved in the 2026 budget to commence construction of a new, two-storey Amerindian hostel in Georgetown, a facility intended to house up to 350 Indigenous visitors travelling to the capital for medical care, education, and official business.
The announcement, made on February 10 before the Parliamentary Committee of Supply, was met with pointed questions from opposition members still waiting for answers on what became of millions already allocated to fix the existing facility. Three potential sites are under consideration, a consultant will be hired, and designs are yet to be finalized. For now, the half-billion dollars is earmarked not for bricks and mortar, but for drawings, tendering, and mobilisation.
The Ghost of $73 Million
The timing of the announcement invites scrutiny.
In early 2024, Parliament approved approximately $73 million for extensive rehabilitation works at the aging Princes Street hostel. Then-Minister Pauline Sukhai detailed a sweeping scope of works: electrical and plumbing repairs, roof restoration, repainting, door replacements, washroom upgrades, and structural fixes to the male and female dormitories. An additional $48 million was allocated for a new concrete access bridge and kitchen extension.
By July 2024, contracts totaling $32 million were awarded. A local construction firm received $18.9 million for the bridge. Another contractor was engaged for $13.9 million to extend the kitchen. The money left the treasury. Contracts were signed. Promises were made.
Nearly two years later, there is no visible evidence that any of this work was ever completed. No rehabilitated bridge. No extended kitchen. No refurbished dormitories. The $73 million allocation, approved, awarded, and ostensibly spent, has produced nothing residents or visitors can point to.
A Deplorable State, Exposed
In December 2025, the unresolved failure became a public crisis. We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) leader Azruddin Mohamed, responding to desperate pleas from residents, visited the hostel and found conditions that his party described in stark terms: rats and infestations, paralysed and bedridden patients in untidy rooms, mattresses so thin they spread scabies, washrooms without flushing toilets, and food so meagre residents were served sausages, sardines, and two slices of bread.
“What is behind a few coats of paint is an untidy, rundown dwelling for our Indigenous brothers and sisters,” WIN stated. The party accused the government of cosmetic repairs that masked systemic neglect.
Minister Browne, who arrived at the scene over an hour after Mohamed and his delegation were initially denied entry, acknowledged the building had “outgrown its capacity” and confirmed that plans for a new facility were already in motion. She later accused the opposition of “bullyism” and exploiting Indigenous peoples for political mileage, insisting the government had long committed to a new hostel.
A Pattern of Unfulfilled Works
The exchange exposed a troubling pattern: millions allocated, contracts awarded, yet no tangible improvement for the very people these funds were meant to serve.
During the December confrontation, Mohamed pressed Browne on whether her husband, a recipient of previous government contracts, would receive the work to upgrade the hostel. Browne responded: “If he has to get the work, I don’t see why he can’t get benefit.” The comment, later clarified by the minister and a government MP as a reference to her husband’s right as a Guyanese citizen to participate in open tendering, nevertheless underscored the heightened sensitivity around procurement integrity. Government representatives insisted that no contract for the new hostel has been awarded, and that the tendering process remains ahead.
$500 Million Forward, No Accountability Backward
The existing hostel, built in 1972, accommodated more than 12,000 people in 2025 alone, stranded patients, vulnerable individuals, and students far from home. No one disputes that a new, modern facility is desperately needed.
But the unresolved question is this: what happened to the $73 million?
Opposition MPs pressed Minister Browne on safety standards, design specifications, and location details during the estimates debate. Yet the more fundamental issue, accountability for past allocations that produced no visible result, remains unanswered.
The government’s position is clear: the old building is beyond its useful life, and a new facility is the only solution. But for the Indigenous men, women, and children who slept on scabies-infected mattresses and fetched buckets of water to flush toilets in 2025, the promise of a new building rings hollow without an accounting of why the last round of repairs never materialised.
