Humphrey admits airport cost too much

FORMER Housing Minister John Humphrey admitted yesterday that the Piarco Airport although very well designed has some faults and should not have cost as much as it did. It has been suggested that the cost of the airport is $1.6 billion.

Humphrey also said he felt he had fulfilled his duties as Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee until recently when a number of questions arose as to whether he was truly effective in his role. He said his doubts arose because of evidence he heard at the Commission of Inquiry into the Piarco Airport Development Project. Humphrey was being re-examined yesterday by his attorney Sean Cazabon. When he was asked what he thought were the reasons for the cost overuns on the project, Humphrey said the major reason was that NIPDEC did not understand the fasttrack method which was being used. He said NIPDEC was allowed to use its own tendering process which bore no relation to the fast-track method and did not put the personnel in place to deal with the project. He insisted that the Airports Authority (AA) was the competent authority to handle the project as was done initially and whoever had informed then Prime Minister Basdeo Panday to remove the project from the AA to NIPDEC “was ill-advised to do so”.

Humphrey also said it was a mistake to fire the professional team which was on the project initially. He also suggested to the Commission that it recommend measures on how to proceed with similar projects in the future. He agreed with Chairman Clinton Bernard that in the future all major government projects should have local experts at the helm leading foreigners, rather than vice versa, as happened on the Piarco project. He denied he was trying to defend Birk Hillman Consultants and pointed out that besides Northern Construction Limited, other contractors got substantial increases in their contracts compared to their original contract price.