Owen Roberts Airport project tops $100M
(CNS): What started as a $51 million upgrade to the terminal at Owen Roberts International Airport in 2014 is now a major project, running at more than $100 million, Tourism Minister Moses Kirkconnell told Finance Committee on Monday. And outlining the need for a bridging loan from the tourism ministry, Albert Anderson, the Chief Executive Officer of the Cayman Islands Airport Authority, revealed a 50% increase on the original price tag for the external work.
Although Anderson did not give an exact final figure for the project, he explained that the work outside the terminal, which the authority has been focused on since the COVID-19 pandemic locked down the country, is $8 million over the original budget. In addition, some $12 million worth of unanticipated work was required, including an extra taxiway and more upgrades to the apron.
Anderson said that the CIAA had to borrow the money because of the additional work and overruns, at a time when the airport’s income has completely dried up as a result of the pandemic. He said that government is offering an interest-free bridging loan, but in the meantime the authority is going through the process of getting the loan from a local commercial bank so that it can carry on working while the airport is not being used.
Explaining how the outside work alone has gone from $25 million dollars to more than $34 million, he said the cost estimates were far short of the real price tag.
“The original master-plan was done in 2014,” Anderson told the committee. But he said that was a vast plan, so the airport management had focused on the most important parts, such as strengthening the runway, filling the ponds, building the perimeter road and dealing with the apron.
“The estimates that we had originally from the 2014 master-plan was that it would cost somewhere in the region of $25 to 26 million. But when we went out to tender, it came back at $34 million-ish or somewhere in that ball park,” he added, as he explained the $8 million budget shortfall.
Opposition Leader Arden McLean pointed out that this was around a 50% increase on the original estimate and questioned if whoever made the original estimate was still in their job.
Anderson also explained that the balance of the loan was to cover additional building work that was needed after some technical issues had emerged with the taxiways.
Opposition MLA Chris Saunders asked the minister to explain or supply a breakdown on how the price tag for this project had gone from the outline business case estimate for the airport terminal of around $51 million to this major project running at more than $100 million. The minister said he would endeavour to get the information to the members.
Watch Monday’s Finance Committee proceedings on CIGTV below:
Category: Business, Government Finance, Politics, Transport
I am happy to still see the warning signs about low flying aircraft, as I am sure I could out maneuver a jet that was going to smash into me in virtually any car .
Gosh I wonder where that money went.
One thing is for sure: we will never introduce direct taxation in the Cayman Islands because then all the MLAs would be legally required to disclose all of their income.
I think your onto something. In the states we call it a lifestyle audit. We could use something similar here done by independent auditors based on the MLAs salary?
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A lifestyle audit is a comparison of known income with standard of living to identify gaps and indicators that someone is living above their means. In some circumstances, this audit is carried out by employers who suspect an employee of fraud.
An Internal Revenue Service (IRS) lifestyle audit goes beyond the numbers on a tax return to see the big picture. Also referred to as an “economic reality check,” this type of audit aims to see if a taxpayer’s income matches his lifestyle. The tax agency may investigate homes, vehicles, clothing, vacations and even charitable donations to see if the taxpayer could realistically afford his or her spending habits.
Island paving supplied the material and did all the work with their equipment and worked around the clock to finish the runway.
No rocket science here.
I have been out of work since March and could not get any funding what so ever to help me and NAU has yet to even acknowledge my application.
But you have people becoming rich from the government spending our money with their friends and then turn around and deny people their basic rights to live which I pay taxes for.
How government has helped people is disgraceful and civil servants seems to be more incompetent and well paid as ever before.