Final cost for CJIA expansion unknown but will not surpass $200M

Final cost for CJIA expansion unknown but will not surpass $200M – Min. Edghill

Sep 09, 2021 News

Kaieteur News – As the cost for the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) expansion project continues to climb, Minister of Public Works, Bishop Juan Edghill, recently stated that the final cost for the project is still unknown since it is a work in progress.

Minister of Public Works, Bishop Juan Edghill

However, he noted that the cost would not surpass US$200M.The Minister’s remarks in this regard were forthcoming during an interview on Globespan. Speaking of the expansion project, he said, “This was supposed to be a US$150M project; $138M financed from the China Exim Bank and $12M from the consolidated fund, taxpayers’ money.”
However, he noted that during the A Partnership for National Unity +Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) last tenure, the initial agreement that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) had signed with the contractor, China Harbour Engineering Company, was adjusted.
The Minister explained that Guyana was supposed to receive an airport with eight air bridges but due to the adjustments made to the contract by the previous government, the contractor only provided two of the air bridges, and two more were purchased which ended up costing Guyana close to US$2M.
The PPP/C government, he said, recently purchased two additional air bridges, bringing the total to six air bridges. The additional air bridges were also procured at a cost of US$2M.

Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) [Mike Charles’ Facebook photo]

On Friday September 10, 2021, there will be the ribbon cutting ceremony for the newly extended runway complete with an Instrument Landing System (ILS). This, he noted, the Government spent, “couple hundred million dollars to put that in place.”
The Minister also spoke about recently signing a $500M plus project to build an office complex in the airport compound to facilitate airline offices and other engagements. While totalling the spending will be done outside of the project’s original cost, the Minister said, “That will be US$150M plus counting…”
Hinting that more monies will be spent, the Minister added that, “Very soon we will be developing the car park…the sewerage system has to be addressed and we are working on that and the water treatment system also.”
The contractor, he said, had agreed to undertake other works on the airport at no cost to Guyana. However, according to the Minister, the company is yet to give the monetary value for those works. However, according to Edghill, his engineers have estimated the value of the works to be somewhere between US$11M and US$13M.
According to the Minister, the airport was expected to be completed by December 31, 2021, but due to the constraints of shipping as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, works might not be completed until early 2022.
Background
The airport expansion contract was signed in 2011 under then President, Bharrat Jagdeo, and was passed through the truncated presidency of Donald Ramotar.
When the David Granger administration took over in 2015, it claimed that the very defective plan needed adjustments. Then 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 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 had not shared whether the contractor spent more than the contract sum. Sharma had also said that the former APNU+AFC government would have decided whether to penalise 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 to be untrue, as a change order that was seen by this newspaper indicated 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 indicated that it was a payment, not for the first, but the third claim made by the contractor.
As the country awaits the completion of the project, which falls 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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