Latest update November 5th, 2024 1:00 AM
US$150M airport renovation…CJIA invites bids for new parking lot
The current parking lot area at CJIA.
The Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) is inviting bids for the construction of a new parking lot at the Timehri facilities. These works were not part of the 2011 contract with China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), raising eyebrows as to why not.
For a US$150M expansion of CJIA, a minor project like the parking lot should have been included, observers had said.
The Government of Guyana will now have to spend separately on a parking lot.
On Sunday, the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, in the Invitation For Bids (IFB), published in Kaieteur News, in announcing the project, said that bidding will be conducted through the National Competitive Bidding procedure specified in the Procurement Act 2003.
The bids will be opened on May 14th, at the offices of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board, Ministry of Finance compound, on Main and Urquhart Streets.
In 2011, the administration of outgoing president, Bharrat Jagdeo, without going to tender, signed onto a contract with CHEC, a Chinese contractor that has offices in Jamaica and Trinidad. In this case, the contract was signed by former Minister of Public Works, Robeson Benn.
It happened a few days before the 2011 general elections, which saw the then Government of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic, losing control of Parliament, amid a slew of scandals.
It has now come out that Guyana only did not check to see whether it was getting value for money (many of the prices were highly inflated) but that the Chinese themselves did not conduct the necessary soil studies and preparation of other reports that would have helped in determining costs.
Rather, the PPP/C agreed that it would build a project for US$150M, with US$138M going to the contractor.
The project involved the lengthening of the main runway and the building of a brand new terminal building with energy-saving features and modern features that would have been the envy of the region.
With regards to the parking lot, the PPP/C government agreed that CHEC would only have to mark the spot where it would be built…the contractor had no other obligations.
However, the project was drastically modified by the Coalition Government in 2015, shortly after it came to office, after finding that little work was done, but that CHEC had claims to more than half of the money – almost US$90M.
The terminal building was reduced to house only the arrivals area while the old terminal was adjoined, gutted and refitted to cater for departures.
The criticisms recently saw Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson, blaming the project’s woes on poor decisions of the Opposition while they were in Government.
The government has not indicated whether it has sanctioned CHEC, which reportedly used equipment it had for the airport project for other private sector projects.
The Audit Office of Guyana has announced that it is moving to carry out an audit on the project; currently, the largest infrastructural one in terms of value.
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