A response to Nascimento on the Ogle Airport baggage scanner

Mar 10, 2023 Letters

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Dear Editor,

If I had known about this letter in the newspaper since it was published on January 13, 2023, I would have responded immediately but I was indisposed for some time now. The x-ray baggage scanner at the Eugene F. Corriea International Airport (EFCIA) was out of operations since March – April 2022 and has not been operational since then. This you can verify with persons on the ground. There are many other agencies working at the airport other than the EFCIA staff. Only recently after my letter in the newspaper on January 11, 2023 highlighting the short comings of EFCIA and getting the Minister of Public Works attention, approximately 3 weeks after my letter EFCIA received an x-ray baggage scanner from the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA). Hence the problem that was ongoing since March – April 2023 was solved only after one letter in the newspaper and the Minister involvement.

Mr. Nascimento does not frequent the airport so how would he know what goes on there? He is not even part of the management meetings. Your job is public relations whatever they tell you to say, you say. Whatever the puppet masters tell you to repeat, you repeat that is your job. You clearly did not do your homework. All you would have to do is speak to the staff on the ground and they can tell you. From CANU, to the police narcotics officers that are there and GRA officers, DHL staff, GPO staff, FedEx, EFCIA staff, the general public who travel there weekly. (FYI we have daily flights to Lethem, Caribbean Airlines, etc.) All of these government agencies have a part to play in the screening of baggage and cargo.

Mr. Nascimento’s claims that the airport is incompliance with ICAO and GCAA is very far-fetched. I have a letter here that I have attached for reference from the GCAA highlighting 21 areas of concern with EFCIA and their internal documents to also include not having an internal quality control system and department nor programme and procedures in place to conduct internal safety and security audits and inspections on their operations. This is a GCAA regulatory requirement by the way which EFCIA is not in compliance with for years now. I’m not even going to dive into your security training requirements. I’ll save some for another time.

This letter is dated Oct 2, 2020 and as of last year November 2022, these issues were still outstanding and have not been sorted out. You can verify this for yourself Mr. Nascimento before you go running at the jaws stating false information about the airport being in full compliance with GCAA. If you are not in compliance with GCAA which is the local authority on aviation what makes you think you will be in compliance with the international community? Next time you should do your research before attacking someone who was only trying to fix your problem that has been ongoing for about 8 months. It only took one letter in January 2023 and your problem was fixed within 3 weeks, so you are most welcome sir. Also, you should publicly thank the Minister and CJIA to coming to your assistance.

Additionally, for security reasons the airport has been advised time and time again to abstain from purchasing Chinese made equipment for x-ray screening. But the persons, advising the airport on security matters disregards all advice given from the GCAA on security matters and the airport still goes ahead and purchases inferior Chinese equipment. This is also a TSA requirement not to use Chinese made equipment and technology because of security concerns. Even thou we do not do direct flights as yet to the USA in the future you are compromising your operation by using inferior Chinese made equipment which as you said is hard to get supplies and replacement parts, etc. which I find very hard to believe. Don’t you read the US Department of Homeland Security advisory circulars on Chinese security equipment? Are you not aware what goes on with Chinese Tech? A bit of advice sir, do some better research or ask the subject matter experts before wasting your resources.

The reason behind my letter in January 2023 was to highlight the deficiencies of the security operation at EFCIA. By physically searching every baggage, mail and cargo it takes longer for passengers to be processed meaning they have to come earlier than usual to que up in long lines with no air conditioning to have to be subjected to physical searches which is also very compromising because you are placing a lot of trust in the persons conducting those searches. This will come under ICAO Annex 9 that deals with Facilitation. With the x-ray baggage scanner there is a record of every piece of baggage, mail and cargo that was scanned so for future reference and investigations you can go back and have a record of it.

By manually doing the process, there is no record it’s a lot of human errors in your process. Also as you don’t know, it is impossible to physically check every piece of baggage, mail and cargo 100 percent effectively because of certain constrains on the items, such as different pieces of equipment you can’t take apart to see what is inside. For certain items like a baby chair and stroller, you can lose it down to check to see if there are any contraband items hidden within it. This has compromised the security system at EFCIA greatly and has reduced the effectiveness of those government agencies with responsibility to ensure contraband items don’t get through the system at EFCIA. Once again, you are welcome. Do your research next time and you can review the GCAA letter from Oct 6, 2020. Those issues highlighted are still outstanding as of today.

Kind regards,

John Taylor

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• Chinese, Eugene F. Corriea International Airport (EFCIA), John Taylor, Minister of Public Works, Nascimento

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