OAI once again lies by denying state funding

Mar 02, 2018 News

OAI PR Consultant, Kit Nascimento

Ogle Airport Inc (OAI) has once again been found misleading the public on matters relating to the development and operations of the Ogle International Airport which has been renamed the Eugene F Correia International Airport.
Recently, former Minister of Government, Manzoor Nadir, penned a letter to the Editor of this newspaper commenting on the OAI saga.
Nadir’s main contention as reflected in his letter is that the nation must benefit more from the 441 acres in the hands of OAI, which is being controlled by the Correias. He noted that the land belongs to the state and that the government invested in the development of the land.
OAI Public Relations Consultant, Kit Nascimento, responded to Nadir’s letter. Among the many, according to sources, “misleading” things stated in the latter, was a line suggesting that Government did not contribute any money towards the development of the airport.
Nascimento said, “On 17^th July, 2003, the Lands & Surveys department, concomitant with the conditions set out in the Lease Agreement, granted a 441-acre lease of land (Master Lease) for 25 years, extendable for two further periods of 25 years. Phase I of the development under the Lease Agreement was successfully completed in 2009, when scheduled passenger operations commenced. Not a penny of state money was invested.”
The facts say different.
The Government of Guyana, during the reign of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) expended just about $30M to relocate squatters during phase one of the airport project.
Phase two was financed by a grant of €1.5M from the European Development Fund to the Government of Guyana which was converted into a soft loan to OAI with a generous long term repayment schedule.
The Government of Guyana also made significant investment in the Air Traffic Control tower to the value of $50M.
Further, the government expended $187M to relocate the NCN tower from Sparendaam in order that the airport could be cleared for international flights

OAI Director, Michael Correia

The Ministry of Public Infrastructure resurfaced the road from Railway Embankment to Ogle Airport.
All the government services provided such as the Guyana Fire Service, Air Traffic Control, Customs, Immigration and Police are all funded by the State.
As recent as two weeks ago, the Guyana Energy Agency installed solar panels on the terminal building at the Airport.
OAI had written to Minister Ashni Singh in 2014 requesting a waiver of the Capital Replacement Reserve Fund, which was a conditionality of the master lease between the Government and OAI.
The land leased to OAI was the property of GuySuCo.
The land was leased in 2003 without any public notice. There was no public transparent process; neither was there a public bidding process.

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