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CJIA expansion…Increased works despite fear of shortage of funds
Increased works on the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) over the weekend flies in the face of a threatened shortage of funds touted by Cabinet Secretary, Dr Roger Luncheon, in July last.
Dr. Roger Luncheon
In fact, Dr. Luncheon following one of his post-Cabinet press briefings had indicated that the 2013 budget cuts for the project would essentially slow the project. Nonetheless, Government said work under the project actually began in earnest two weeks ago.
In 2012, the National Assembly approved US$20 million for the airport expansion, but the $5.3B budget cut, earlier this year, had resulted in a delay of construction works. The Government and the contractor, China Harbour Engineering Company Limited (CHEC), were targeting a June start.
“So when you pull the plug in 2013 we end up like what happened with Manning and Kamla. Remember Manning went into these big contracts with the Brits to buy aeroplanes and boats and all kinds of things and when Kamla came in she scrapped all of them. You can always scrap it… Governments can do that, but there are consequences,” he said.
Luncheon said that the day the airport project did not get the 2013 budget vote there were problems.
“If the contract was not threatened by 2013 action, you would have gotten a ramping up of the work being done by the contractor…Men would have started making spare parts and all the things that are part and parcel of the contract. Now I got to be a madman to go and do that… I would have to be spending penny penny li’l bit, because I don’t know what would happen,” Dr. Luncheon said.
He added, “The contract is usually executed in a predictable way, as a certain percentage of the contract sum, called a mobilization, is provided to the contractor and he pays that back during the life of the contract…The 2012 Parliamentary approval and the execution of the contract received mobilization… a formidable sum… hundreds of millions of dollars…they are using that to continue the work, but I don’t know how long they will continue.”
Government signed a design and build contract to the tune of US$138M with the Chinese contractor. The project is being partially funded by a US$130M loan from China with the rest coming from the public treasury.
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