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US$150M airport renovation…US$35M charge for sand is fraudulent
Guyana spent a staggering US$35M, according to one report, on sand for the Timehri airport expansion but like everything else associated with the project, it could have been done way, way cheaper.
According to Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson, one million truckloads of sand had been used on the airport at $7,000 per truckload.
While those one million truckloads would raise eyebrows in many quarters; it is angering quite a few truckers who fetch sand.
“This is ridiculous…With the kind of arrangements that the contractor got, we could do it for
Minister David Patterson
$3,000 or $4,000 a truckload,” one truck driver said.
He has a single axle truck which holds up to 15 cubic yards of sand. He charges between $13,000 and $15,000 to bring it to the city.
But China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), the contractor of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CHEC) doesn’t have that distance to cover.
In fact, the sand pits are located right in the vicinity of the runway that was extended, and the airport terminal itself.
Government made the pit available free of cost to CHEC.
It did not stop there, too. CHEC was granted duty free concessions on equipment, including trucks and excavators.
It is unclear whether there were fuel concessions, also, which would have been an added incentive.
What is known is that for normal truckers, there is a charge for loading sand onto their trays from the sand pits that are controlled by third parties.
Those charges range from $2,000 to $3,000 each. In the case of CHEC, it is not saddled with those charges.
“There is another thing, too. If you ask me to bring one million truckloads of sand from Timehri to Georgetown, I would give you a big discount. If I charging you $12,000 for a truckload then it gone come down to about $6,000 to bring it to GT. It cannot be $7,000 to drop one truckload. That is fraud, plain and simple,”
The US$35M price tag for just sand at the Timehri airport is tantamount to fraud, truckers said yesterday.
another truck driver who operates from the Ruimveldt area said yesterday.
The airport project has spanned three administrations now, starting since 2011.
Actual construction began in 2013 with CHEC telling the Guyana Government, under former President Bharrat Jagdeo, that it can build a new terminal building for arrivals and departures and eight passenger bridges, along with a longer runway for wide-body jets, for US$150M.
However, Guyana is not getting that. Instead of an entire, two-storey terminal, it got less than half of that.
New attractive, energy saving features like skylights have not been installed. Rather, the old terminal building has b
Sand truck operators are angry over cost of material that CHEC has charged the people of Guyana.
een gutted and refitted.
There are only four passenger bridges.
Flat screen televisions for use to display flight information were set to cost at $1.3M, way above the $300,000 price.
Guyana is getting a way smaller airport but there have been details from the Government why it adjusted the scope of works so drastically.
What is known is that the contractor and the Government have both not been talking much about the new designs.
Guyana, at the end of the day, will still have to repay the loan to China.
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