Long delay in runway repaving

THE EDITOR: In a very recent letter published in the Newsday, one Wilfred James made some pertinent and important observations regarding the current project involving the repaving of the runways at the Piarco International Airport. The situation with regard to this project is much worse than your correspondent indicated in his letter. Airlines, airline pilots and the travelling public must be prepared to face and endure worse problems in the coming months as there will undoubtedly be a very long delay in the completion of this project. Due to the inexperience of the contractor to whom the project was awarded they may well be exposed to risks. In addition, there is likely to be heavy costs overruns, much more than your correspondent could have visualised. Your correspondent made certain observations regarding the award of the contract, but he was apparently not aware of everything.

Investigations have revealed that the contract was awarded after evaluation of the tenders received. In view, however of the revelations made by your correspondent, the taxpaying public should be interested in knowing about the evaluation, the criteria that were used and the justification of the award. Information has recently come to light that the contractor on the project was also awarded a multi-million dollar contract for a car park for the Piarco International Airport. No tenders were invited prior to the award of this car park contract. It was made to the contractor in spite of his failure to fulfil his contractual obligations on the repaving of the runways project. The contractor tendered for the repaving project at a price that was just about 50 percent of the consultants’ estimate for the project. Clearly the contractor could not complete the project at his tendered price. This explains the problem now being experienced.

JEEWAN SINGH
Arouca