Completion of CJIA expansion project delayed again

Initially scheduled to have been completed by December 2017, then December 2018, expansion works continue on the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri and questions remained unanswered on current developments or when the project will be finished.

Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson in late October had assured that the project would be completed by December 31st 2018, having missed the December 2017 deadline. But as of yesterday, works were still ongoing.

At that time, Patterson said that the new Arrivals and Departure sections had been opened to passengers. He added that two of the boarding bridges were operational while two more would have been operational by the ending of November 2018.

Minister within the Ministry of Public infrastructure, Annette Ferguson, has said that the contract with China Harbour Engineering Company expired on December 31st last year but gave no new insight into what would be done.

Stabroek News reached out to her Public Relations Officer Andrew Weekes and MPI’s Public Relations Officer Krest Cummings for comment. Weekes said that Patterson was out of the country but reports on the project were available and he would ask Ferguson if they could be released to the public. However, following that conversation and his request to be called back, numerous calls to his phone went unanswered even as he made public postings in social media groups.

Cummings asked that the questions be emailed and she promised to “attend to the questions ASAP” but up to press time yesterday, there was no response.

PPP shadow Minister of Public Infrastructure, Juan Edghill, has expressed concern about the incomplete project and costs to taxpayers, even as he highlighted extra costs already incurred.

Reflecting on the project, started by government in 2013, Edghill in a letter to Stabroek News, reminded that it was envisioned to be a design and build fix-priced contract with eight boarding gates (air bridges), a significantly extended runaway, new terminal buildings, state of the art check-in and communication facilities, adequate conveyor belts to accommodate simultaneous multi arrivals and concession areas to facilitate transit and other global travellers.

The APNU+AFC government while in opposition had been critical of the project and had voted against funding for it in light of their concerns about the high cost to taxpayers and the potential relocation of some 1,500 residents of the Timehri North area, he wrote.

Edghill claimed that the APNU+AFC government “renegotiated the contract, giving us two air bridges and has now found extra money from the national purse to buy another two at a higher price, in a most questionable manner.”

“Are the Guyanese people getting the right value for their monies spent,” he asked. Further he added, “Regardless of all these questions, the biggest question I have today editor is the real completion date. On the Ministry of Public Infrastructure website, they have a lovely description of the project and I quote: ‘The Cheddi Jagan International Airport Expansion Project will be a behemoth in infrastructural development. With a new scheduled completion timeline of December 2018…’.”

Edghill pointed out that it is now 2019. “The project as of December 31st 2017 had spent US$111.79M (81%) of the US$150M allocated to the total project cost. When is the project really expected to be completed since another deadline has been missed? What will be the final price? Will they be attempting to appropriate further funding? These are all questions the already burdened taxpayers of this country need answers to…” he wrote.

He said that the PPP/C has already indicated that it intends to call for a “value for money” audit on this project.