Govt probes $22M Airport runway contract

WORKS and Transport Minister Franklyn Khan said the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) will investigate substandard runway re-paving works at the Piarco International Airport and determine who is responsible. However in making the announcement at yesterday’s post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall, Khan steered clear of blaming any of the Piarco Airport runway contract’s stakeholders — especially project contractors Jusamco Pavers Ltd which was awarded the $22 million contract in August 2003. “Cabinet agreed to engage the ICAO to do an investigation into the contract and determine what went wrong and where culpability lies. Because of the sensitive nature of this issue we prefer to bring in international experts to see where it went wrong. We want to do it in a scientific, non-passionate, professional and transparent way. I think as a Government, this is the best course of action.

We don’t want to start to assign blame too early but the work has not been done up to the specifications of the contract and there will be a cost implication,” he said. The Minister said the cost of bringing in international experts was small in the context of the overall contract. According to Khan, there were hitches in the contract from the onset. “At the time the contract was awarded we were having our major problems with BWIA as it relates to the Government’s funding some of BWIA’s operations,” he stated. Khan explained that working hours on the runway were cut drastically to avoid jeopardising BWIA’s summer schedule. “We felt that was a very pragmatic decision to take since the money that BWIA would have lost by closing the airport too early was significantly more than we would have gained on the contract. We were willing to accept some incremental overruns on the contract in that regard,” the Minister said.

Khan said the asphalt mix had to be imported from Nova Scotia because the local mix did not meet ICAO specifications. While he was unable to say whether foreign firms tendered for the contract, Khan said Piarco’s runway has not been re-paved in the last 30 years and there was not an abundance of local expertise in this area.  The Minister said while airport and highway re-paving were fundamentally the same, the former demanded more stringent procedures. Khan said a topographic study will be completed on the airport this weekend and Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) runway expert Roy B McQueen will advise Government accordingly. The Minister said a preliminary FAA survey indicated that the grade of the runway relative to the paving exercise “was particularly out of the specifications of the contract” and the runway could either be re-sheeted with asphalt or re-paved from scratch. Khan said the Piarco runway was safe and this situation would not affect TT regaining Category one Status.