Additional US$6.5M needed to complete CJIA – Minister Edghill

Sep 20, 2020 News

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…US$150M and counting

The bill for the US$150M expansion of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) is one that continues to climb, as Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill, recently disclosed that an additional US $6.5M is needed to complete the almost 10-year-old project.

Though the contract for these additional works has not yet been awarded, Minister Edghill highlighted during his second budget presentation that the works are “needed” since the current state of the $150M airport is heavily deficient and dysfunctional.
Edghill related to National Assembly on Friday that the initial contract was reduced from 9,000 square meters to 4,046.
Even with the reduction in the scope of works, the contractor, China Harbour Engineering Company, still could not meet the deadline for the handing over of the airport—in fact, on several occasions.
With this, he further explained: “This facility would have been able to land A380Airbuses and would have had eight boarding bridges as well as new arrival and departure terminals. After five years of thumb-twiddling by the APNU+AFC outfit, we have had the occasion to read the riot act to the contractors to complete the substantially reduced-scoped project, and to make provision in this year’s budget to finance several critical interventions necessary to make the airport functional.”
Notably, contention continues to grow over the cost of the airport, after in January of this year, recent invitations for bids advertised in the daily newspapers had indicated that the airport needed a new fence for its public car park and an access control security hut.
These intended projects, which stand outside of the US$150M contract, are not alone.
There are also plans for a new parking lot valued at $122M, a cargo facility, a commercial centre, an office area and a parking lot, all advertised last year.
It has been argued, however, that the projects should never have been left out in the first place, as contractors have told Kaieteur News that the amount and quality of work being done to renovate the terminal building since it began could have been done for US$5M – 30 times less than the US$150M (and counting), that taxpayers are expected to foot.
The Public Works Minister emphasized that the airport, which was expected to be enough to transform the port into a regional transit hub, needs to be fixed to an advanced standard. The government maintains, however that the completion of the airport by China Harbour is the first priority.
“That is one thing,” Edghill said, “but even if complete everything on that contract we still have to go ahead and do these additional works.”
These new works, measured to be in 4,954 square meters, is estimated to cost $1,298,578, 239B, while the supervision and the consultancy for the design of the new project will cost $69M. According to the Minister, the contracts were awarded for the design and supervision and it went to three consultancy firms—C&B Associates, E&A Consultants.

Background
This contract was signed in 2011 under then President Bharrat Jagdeo, and then passed through the truncated presidency of Donald Ramotar.
When the David Granger administration took over in 2015, it claimed a very defective plan needed adjustments.
Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson had said that upon assumption of office, the APNU+AFC administration had found that only seven percent of the work was completed, with claims for US$90M (more than half of the contract sum), casting aspersions on the PPP/C’s management of the project.
Even with the sub-standard work, former Junior Minister within the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Jaipaul Sharma had revealed that the contractor spent more on certain aspects of the project than was laid out in the contract.
However, he wouldn’t say, whether the contractor spent more than the contract sum.
Sharma had also said that the former APNU+AFC government would have decided whether to penalize the company for “breach of contract”.
The previous government had also said that it would not spend a cent more on the project, but that proved not to be true, as a change order seen by this newspaper indicates that the administration made at least one additional disbursement of $6.8M for the “extra time delay and costs for the prolongation of the project” by 807 days.
The order also indicates that it was a payment, not for the first, but the third claim made by the contractor.
As the country waits on the completion of the project which fell way below expectations, taxpayers are still obligated to repay a loan of US$138M to China, which forms part of the contract sum.

 

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