$98,000 bi-fold door was Trini/USA ‘ratchifee’

A $98,000 bi-fold door was never in the plans for the Piarco airport development project, although contractor for CP9 Northern Construction Limited (NCL) tendered for it, after it was listed on the contract by consultants Birk Hillman Consultants (BHC). The absence of the door in the airport plans was yesterday described as a Trini/USA “ratchifee” by former Housing Minister and Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) overseeing the project, John Humphrey. Asked who were involved in the “ratchifee,” (meaning scam) Humphrey identified the parties as Birk Hillman Consultants (BHC), Northern Construction Limited (NCL), the Airports Authority (AA) and NIPDEC. Humphrey also maintained yesterday that BHC were competent professionals although he admitted that they lied about his instructions in letters they wrote to NIPDEC. Humphrey was continuing his evidence at the Commission of Inquiry into the project. He was questioned yesterday by NIPDEC’s attorney Christopher Hamel-Smith and lead attorney for the Commission, Theodore Guerra, SC. Humphrey said after the exorbitant price of the door was made known in Parliament, he investigated the matter and discovered there was no plan for a bi-fold door. He said even up to today there is no bi-fold door.

He confirmed that BHC in the CP9 contract listed the bi-fold door as an item and priced it at $472. He said NCL as tenderer for the package, bid $98,340 which Humphrey said was a 20,000 percentage increase. Asked by Guerra if BHC and NCL had invented the door, Humphrey said he couldn’t say although he maintained his investigations found no bi-fold door in the airport plan. Asked if he felt some sort of “ratchifee” was going on, he said “could be.” Asked what sort of “ratchifee,” he said a “Trini/USA ratchifee.” He later said it was obviously an error but whether it was intentional or not, he couldn’t say. He was however told by Chairman Clinton Bernard, that evidence showed that NIPDEC merely acted on instructions to carry out CP9 and the AA was not involved. Asked by Guerra if the “ratchifee” showed incompetence on BHC’s part, Humphrey did not answer. Asked when he would stop defending BHC, he said he wasn’t doing that but the questions Guerra asked were leading to try to get him to condemn BHC. Earlier Humphrey was shown a letter BHC wrote to NIPDEC telling them Humphrey had directed the change from matte porcelain tiles to granite tiles for the high traffic areas of the airport. Humphrey said he never gave such directions.

He insisted that Edwardo Hillman-Waller had met him in his office and said that the matte porcelain tiles would scuff easily and result in high maintenance costs. He said Hillman-Waller recommended that granite tiles be used. Humphrey said he was told by Hillman-Waller that the granite tiles would cost the same as the matte porcelain tiles and the Colombian quarry would use Piarco airport to advertise the granite tiles. Humphrey said he only learnt via the Inquiry that the new tiles resulted in a $7 million increase in the CP9 contract and project budget as a whole. Humphrey admitted that he knew granite tiles were 10-15 times more expensive than matte porcelain tiles, but he accepted Hillman-Waller’s word that it would not increase the price of the project. He said if he knew the tiles would have cost more he would not have accepted the recommendation. Humphrey said he was never suspicious of Hillman-Waller’s recommendation because he seriously thought it was feasible. He said he knows he is peculiar in the eyes of some people but he trusted BHC. Asked if he still trusted them based on the lies they told NIPDEC about his authorisation, Humphrey said yes. Asked if he felt deceived by BHC’s actions, Humphrey said it was a difficult question to answer, however, he admitted he was terribly misled by BHC. He will continue to be questioned by Guerra when the inquiry resumes this morning.