THE AIRPORT WORKS CAN END UP COSTING FAR MORE!

May 15, 2012 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

One of the projects that escaped the AFC Budget cuts is the proposed works to make the Cheddi Jagan International Airport into a category one facility.
The funds for this project are not coming from NICIL. The US$ 150M price tag is going to be loaned to Guyana by a Chinese Bank. And no doubt it will be a Chinese firm that will undertake the contract.
This is how it works when foreign governments lend you monies. Their companies have to get the job. It happens with the Chinese and it happens with the Americans.
Perhaps because this project was being funded by the Chinese was responsible for it not being slashed by the opposition parties.
Yet, from the controversy that is raging about this loan and project, one would have anticipated that the opposition parties would have been vigorously protesting this project.
If a series of paid advertisement that appeared in the Kaieteur News are factual, then there is reason to be concerned.
It was, of course, no surprise that those behind the paid advertisement chose the Kaieteur News to “skin- up” the airport project. Kaieteur News and particularly Glenn Lall have been in the forefront of efforts to expose the many controversial deals entered into under the Jagdeo presidency and the latest advertisement only vindicates the previous concerns.
What is being suggested in that advertisement raises serious questions about the uses to which taxpayers’ funds have been put? It raises concerns as to the extent to which taxpayer’s funds were used to facilitate investments by cronies of the former administration.
There is now a need for a Commission of Inquiry into the origin of this airport project for as the advertisements revealed, there are some coincidences that raise serious question marks.
What is now being asked is whether there is a group of rich and well- connected businesses that like the high risk game. How else does one explain it in the midst of the global financial crisis going into the airline business?
Why would these businessmen in a small country like Guyana where airlines have folded because of the small or non-existent margins become involved? Why would anyone want to start up an airline at a time of economic downturn in the world.
So far it is believed that some US$150M is going to be sunk into the airport project. And the reason provided is so that Guyana can meet category one status.
Now what are the benefits of a category one airport? And how can these benefits be justified given the massive debt that Guyana will accrue because of this investment?
Guyana could have remained, as it has done for a long time, a category two airport. But no! It wants to be a category one.
One of the reasons that is being suggested for Guyana wanting this rating is to allow for a national carrier to fly between Guyana and other airports.
But what is the system that is in place to allow for an airline to be designated the national carrier? How much is Guyana going to be paid to so certify an airline? We do not know.
Perhaps, no one within the government has yet figured out that Guyana should not be giving away flag carrier status free, that the successful bidder should pay a high premium for the right to be designated as the national airline of Guyana. After all, with such a branding, that successful airline will make a great deal of money.
More importantly, a lot of money is likely to be spent just to have this brand. If the works at the airport are indeed necessary so that a national airline can fly between Guyana and other airports, then it means that effectively we are burdening ourselves with a massive debt simply to give flag carrying status to an airline.
This cannot be allowed. If this is the case the government should move to halt the airport project. Just as how Guyana does not need for the government to sink money into a specialty hospital that will make money for private investors, so too Guyana does not need a category one rating simply to allow for an airline to be designated a national carrier. Not at a minimum price tag of US 150M.
And mind you, this may not be the price for the entire project. It could end up costing more, far more. And the increased air traffic, if any at all, is not going to justify the level of investment being made.
The opposition missed the airport project in their cuts. Let us hope that the government does not do the same and given the questions swirling around this project that the Donald Ramotar administration will soon announce its cancellation.

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THE AIRPORT WORKS CAN END UP COSTING FAR MORE!

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