Officials blame consultants for $74M airport bill
(CNS): Airport bosses blamed the increased costs, delays and general mismanagement of the airport terminal project on the consultants when they appeared before the Public Accounts Committee on Wednesday. With an expected final cost now of more than $74 million just for the terminal, around $22 million more than the original budget, Cayman Islands Airports Authority Board Chair Thom Guyton and CEO Albert Anderson pointed the finger at RS&H, the Florida-based company picked to design the new airport.
Guyton and Anderson both said the consultants supplied inadequate drawings and, despite the significance of this, no one noticed until the project was well underway and the Building Control Unit picked up on it.
The two men were called as witnesses by PAC, as the members began work on a long-stalled report by the auditor general. Although the audit was conducted in 2018, it was not made public until the following year with certain redactions as a result of ongoing legal issues with the consultants.
With the project now largely complete and the final sums agreed upon, PAC is now able to conduct its public hearings.
The airport bosses said that the first project manager was fired by RS&H. His replacement, who was described by Anderson as being no better, was also taken off the job and eventually replaced by a competent manager. But by that time, PAC heard, the problems were so entrenched that it was difficult for the third project manager to repair the damage.
The consultants were selected by the Central Tenders Committee after a consortium, which had included Chalmers Gibb, was selected and then rejected because, the airport officials said, it turned out that they were not able to do the work.
Guyton said RS&H was “highly qualified on paper and we don’t know what went wrong with them”.
Given that almost 500 changes had to be made because of the inadequate drawings, the chain of events that led up to the selection and then the retention of the consultants was scrutinized by PAC. However, it became apparent that there have been few consequences for the consultants’ poor performance, as they have been largely paid for the work they did.
Anderson said this was because in the end they did do the work they were required to do, just not in the time they had said they would do it, which had contributed to the cost overruns.
Roy Williams, the senior project manager in the Major Projects Office, who took over the project part-way through, explained to the committee that, despite doing what the officials had claimed was a very poor job, RS&H was not dismissed because of the major turmoil that would cause. He said that when things go wrong with consultants or contractors part-way through a job, it is always better to keep trying to resolve things unless they get really bad.
The increase in costs was also fuelled by the decisions made by the airport management team to add more things and enhance the project after it became clear from 2016 onward that the authority was collecting far more revenue than it had originally expected.
Despite all of the issues that plagued the project, Anderson said he believed the public did get overall value for money, though he admitted to a number of things that they would do differently, and were doing, on the current external project. He also said that the CIAA is taking legal advice about any possible future action against the consultants.
While the CIAA is treating the terminal and the airfield work as two separate projects, when the two are complete the enhancement to ORIA will still have cost taxpayers in excess of $121 million, given that the external work is currently estimated to be around $47.2 million. When the authority first announced plans to begin work at the airport, the budget had been around $51 million.
The PAC hearings are expected to continue Thursday, when the general contractors and the chief officer of the Ministry of Tourism are scheduled to appear.
Category: development, Government oversight, Local News, Politics
They even convinced them to purchase boulders/rocks from overseas.
Just another reason why the “Lodge” must, ABSOLUTLY MUST, be eradicated from Gov’t.
To be so bold as to put the “Lodge” symbol right on the airport stinks to high hell of corruption.
No wonder why its costs are so overinflated.
Members looking out for other members.
That entity needs to be banned from government. I can only hope the new younger aspiring politicians can see what these criminals are doing and demand the eradication of them.
Until this entity is cut down things will only get worse.
10:31 Great to know that QAnon is alive and well in the Cayman Islands. QAnon claims the Biden administration is part of the “Deep Stste” and the Masons are part of it in America.
So let’s go crazy here with you and your QAnon friends.
Only Trump can save America. 😆 😆 😆
Who else can save us from the “Lodge”.
FYI . There are some good psychiatrists on Grand Cayman.
Truth, you are correct that the airport stinks to the high hell of corruption but don’t buy the QAnon conspiracy theory that “the Lodge” is part of a massive conspiracy theory to take over the world and control everything.
There are enough crazy conspiracy people in America now so leave them there and don’t bring the craziness here with your QAnon nutty ideas.
For both of the commentors you obvious are either a part of the Lodge or just plain dumb.
The Lodge in Cayman is very much a leading membership. They definitely look out for one another, ONLY.
And the key to their successes has, and always will be, their secrecy.
If Govt were to insist that a complete and transparent list of Lodge members, in Govt, was to be published you would be greatly alarmed by who is a member and what positions they hold and how many their are.
Even better still is to cause a local public registry of who, in all three Islands, is a member.
Hundreds of people would either go to jail, end up dead or there would be mass resignations/exoduses.
Hence why all the secrecy..
Forget all your lame ass conspiracy theory deflections. Publish an entire registry, if there is nothing to hide….
Put your money/life where your big fat mouth is…
Cant do it, can you….
Truth and Truth Still, You are seriously delusional and need some help. Please read the following then get help as others have suggested previously.
https://www.logically.ai/articles/sworn-in-secrecy-what-the-qanon-and-freemasonry-conspiracies-have-in-common
Truth, But you seem to know in your postings who all these people are in “The Lodge” so why not list all the names. You think you know so much about these secret societies here. Let us in on your big secret and pull up your big boy pants.
Can’t do it, can you
Oh, well let’s see, I will pull up my Big Boy Pants after your mother, your wife and your daughter finish with what they wanted cause you obviously dont mind.
Do something about that. You can’t, can you….
And Bobo, by you stating WB, that says it all right there.
You know the old saying, the most confusing days in WB are mothers day and fathers day right….
And we still get to walk in the rain to the plans
been here 20 years…never got rained on getting on or off a plane.
You obviously don’t travel very much between June and November.
10.47pm been here 50 years and I’ve got wet many times especially on American, which is required to park almost by North Sound.
The plans would get wet.
Let us all not forget it was Anderson, and Anderson alone who caused chaos by announcing the airport was closing for 11 consecutive Tuesdays to allow for the runway improvements. All the international airlines serving ORIA amended their schedules,passengers had to change their flight bookings, then at the last moment Mr Anderson changed his mind, as someone pointed out it could be done at night. Any repercussions for this monumental error of judgement, are you kidding?, in the true tradition of the Civil Service and Govt owned statutory authorities no accountability so MrAnderson who knows this, could just shrug his shoulders
What a completely clueless comment
7.00am If that applies to me, explain yourself, my comments are all facts.
The closing/not closing fiasco personally cost me about $1000
Seriously? Everyone who submitted any kind of bid on this project was pretty vocal that the drawings/documents were insufficient. So hearing that they didnt realize until quite far in is such a load of absolute you know what.
Not once has the Airport authority mentioned or admitted the many changes ,extras,and additions to scope of works they requested during the project construction.
Of course they did. They said it was around 5 million dollars worth of upgrades that were paid for from additional funds received from an unexpected upsurge in passenger traffic. Pay attention.
It was waaaaaay more than $5M of changes and additions, but it’s easier to blame the furrriners,
Just wondering, has the runway been approved because it still has sandbags on it preventing the new portion being used.
No, it is pending test results of runway strength. Funnily enough they initially had the same people who resurfaced the runway test its strength… Obviously a major conflict. Bunch of geniuses running the airport
Stran does not know SPIT,.Heard he said could not fill in the west end of the Airport, because the birds would not have any where to go, and the water would flood the Airport if it was filled in . Didn’t think of drain wells
I am only a lowly Chartered Project Manager but… Why didn’t the Major Projects Office say, “Hey Building Control, I am about to pay this massive bill for these drawings. We are both civil servants and we want to spend CIG money wisely. Could you take a look before I settle the tab?”
Didn’t BCU and Planning pass the drawings?
Planning? That is one department that need a thorough purge, from the top down or the bottom up. All they do is increase the cost of structures that the poorer people try to do. Time to scrap the entire department.
Would they really understand or know what was lacking and would increase the cost. Every project that government/authorities undertake, the costs increases and no heads roll. Do those stooges still have their job? The Minister, Anderson and Guyton, should be very concerned about this fiasco. Wonderful executives!!
Planning doesn’t know jack about whether plans are adequate for construction.
I would recommend you stick to remaining a “lowly Chartered Project Manager”. A rather misguided and naïve suggestion coming from someone obviously unfamiliar with the Cayman approvals process, or the ability of any of the arms of CIG to cooperate on this level. Nor would it be legally defensible under most consulting agreements – perhaps you missed that week at Chartered Project Manager school. Every attempt was made to obtain cooperation between departments but in the end, little movement to assist the project during unreasonable delays in approvals due to piecemeal reviews.
Always everyone’s fault but yours, I see.
This news item is a rather unfortunate and selective version of the facts – many of the (inevitable) comments are sadly ignorant or uninformed. As Anonymous 11:01 pointed out, the financial aims of the OBC were largely met by the cost of the final plans which included many changes not originating with the designers. RS&H produced a competent design solution given the extraordinary task of renovating a working airport. Many of the so-called technical issues, had as much to do with an over zealous building approvals system than inadequate documents. The final result is a radical makeover of an outdated facility that was functioning at almost double it’s original design capacity. The fact that this was accomplished at a fraction of the cost of a new facility is something that the country can be very proud of – compare with other islands’ costs for new airports to realise this was a bargain (Bermuda for example). All paid for out of current revenue rather than borrowing from foreign sources. The officials quoted are ‘pointing fingers’ unnecessarily, possibly with a level of naiveite – there are complications normally involved in any major renovation and necessary cost contingencies required when budgeting. Whether you love it or hate it, Cayman got a bargain with this airport and everyone involved should be pleased with public money well-spent rather than misdirecting cheap shots at the government, the consultants or contractor.
One that falls short of the main amenities that a modern airport should have. No jetways, no cover for exiting passengers and built below the apron, so it is a pond inside. Wonderful job.
Many airports of our size do not have jetways. Even in Hawaii (Big Island) with triple the number of passengers did not when I visited several years ago.
Bermuda has jetways.
10:00, No not correct. When I was in Barbados a year ago, they had what are known as airport box tunnels. Not the same as jetways but still keep you dry. Better than what we have here.
What major modern airport in the Caribbean in a country with a tourism industry does not have jetways?
Barbados…wonderful to walk out to fresh air.
Yeah 12:35, but you don’t want to compare what Bermuda got and what we got. Just look at the Bermuda Airport pictures. It puts our Airport to shame. Having said that there will be more work to be done on the airport again in the next few years.
We screwed up royally.
How does the CIAA Board Chair, even in hindsight, not “know what went wrong with” these vendors? That’s literally the Board’s most important fiduciary duty, while presiding for years over major construction efforts. After they are fired for cause (incompetence), can we, the public, sue this Board, and overseeing Ministers, for non-performance and recover our money through court-ordered garnishment? I’ll sign that petition.
Absolutely correct. The Board Chair should have been “all knowing” of the internal workings and details within the various contractor’s businesses. Sue them all!
12:29pm
You missed out the most important thing. The rosy lease on those white elepants (737,s). No one is talking about them. Where is the update from the MINISTER. Silence only. Will the silence be broken after May 26, 2021?
Boeing essentially covered all costs under an agreement with CAL during the downtime – and continued to do so up until their approval to fly. Now that is no longer the case, that 250k a month per plane price tag is looking pretty bad and they’ll want to fly as soon as possible (stay tuned for mid-february flights…)
The business case that was prepared for this project in 2014, and approved by both Cabinet and the FCO, predicted a final construction cost at completion of $71 million (+/- 5%). That number was expressed as 51.9M plus construction material inflation over 5yrs, plus 25% for “expected costs” for unforeseen risks. The project landed at $74 million or 3% over the $71 million estimate. The $74 million spent includes $5 million in enhancements approved by the Board only after additional cash was available (over and above the budget) to pay for the enhancements. Intelligent CNS readers and reporters would be well served to read the Business case (OBC) for the facts rather than base comments on sensationalist reporting.
11:01. Thank you. Finally some facts.
We have a wonderful airport and the Business Case is a great read.
Upgrade terminal. Strengthen and increase the run way. Purchase jet ways. Such a straightforward plan.
I don’t anyone would advocate for jet ways first. ????zzzzzzzzz
The airport looks like it was designed in the 1980’s by people who were thinking what the future would look like.
11.01am so did the “expected costs” include the upgrade of windows to hurricane proof standards, the provision of covered walkways for passengers, and the early installation of the emergency generators. Even a baggage handler would have expected to see these improvements in the original contract and not added on at considerable extra cost after the contract was signed.
Whatever the cost nothing excuses the catalogue of errors by almost everyone involved in the project.
To cap it off, Mr Anderson announces right after completion and prior to Covid that further expansion will be required almost immediately to cater to the increased traffic.
If you only have $100k to build your house, and halfway through you get a bonus and decide to add a $5k carport, is that a $5k overrun on your original $100k house? I don’t think so. All of the Board approved add-ons were only approved after a cash windfall came in from increased arrivals. The CIAA was not allowed to borrow $1 for the project so had to build what they could with what they had.
you see the huge symbol on the building…front and back…man…that organization strong
Oh. Wow! I hadn’t noticed that until you pointed it out!
Subtle or is that subluminal?
???
If you mean Masonic, I get the compasses but where is the square?
It’s the QAnon symbol. They are on island now. Get ready for some real lunacy.
No it isn’t. Unless you think every triangle is Qanon. You are as crazy as them.
the new airport is a national disgrace. When you look at the food and drink offering there it’s pathetic. Another golden opportunity wasted by the likes of Moses and his cronies who are still stuck in the Brac circa 1970
I recommend you advocate raising taxes so you can get your dream terminal. Everything costs money and you only get what you pay for.
Yeah, and we certainly have the money here.
No reason why we could not have had a world class airport like Bermuda.
At least the exterior project came in under budget!
“The consultants were selected by the Central Tenders Committee after a consortium…”
The Central Planning Board and Central Tenders Committee continue to be the death of this country.
We can’t even vote these incompetent MFs out!!
Unforeseen and change orders are profit making by the contractor, and shows lack of proper design and or detailed specifications. The contracting manager should have refined both before any notice to proceed was issued. Let’s all hear what those unforeseen was and amounted to.
Can someone explain how a guy who runs a grocery store (which job he got by marrying the owner’s daughter) is qualified to supervise a project such as this?
JBT – You’re a smart, clued-in guy, so I’m assuming your question is rhetorical. But for those who might not know the power of certain families here, his qualification comes from the name of the supermarket.
JTB. Good point. Private sector boards are simply not working.
Basically the PPM and Moses hired and went along with groups that don’t build airports for a living, authorizing further cash payouts as they went along to pave over their mistakes. Having seen their library of previous work, it was easy to call it before they broke ground. There should now be a full inquest with those signatories put in the dock. Moses Kirkconnell in particular has directly cost the Cayman Islands hundreds of millions of dollars by negotiating terrible secret deals where the Cayman Public gets screwed. We literally can’t afford to have this level of ego-driven autocratic ineptitude at the helm of any decision making going forward.
Perhaps we can add a review of the 737MAX leasing contracts, where apparently you have to keep paying the lease even though the aircraft are not fit to fly.
Incorrect. The leases for each aircraft delivered were covered by Boeing – the only real costs CAL paid were maintenance (weekly runs and upkeep). However, wait until the public find out how much salt has accrued in various parts of the aircraft due to it being on the ground for so long… Corrosion in places that should not be corroded…
Hmmmmmm follow the money!!!!
This is really beyond belief.. Fire all concerned I mean immediately. We can’t continue with this type of incompetence/ corruption. But you can’t fire dem unless ya fire the Government May cannot come too soon.
Totally agreed. Get rid of all of them.
Guyton should stick to flying only. They should all be held accountable, disgraceful waste of Public funds and the Airport still needs further expansion!
Thanks for continuing the trend that started in the Garden of Eden … Albert’s just doing the deed in our own ‘Paradise’; passing the buck (literally) along.. blaming everyone except himself and his team who are running the show. I appreciate that we have a lovely looking Airport and runway but with a >$25m scope creep cost, surely accountability requires a finger pointed squarely at the CEO and his exec team… will heads roll? (likely not).Leadership 101; take responsibility and be accountable for the actions taken on your watch. Albert you have been measured and weighed and found wanting!
Good job, he must’ve had a hangover from their parties.
So 500 changes to the drawings had to be made? So what? Probably made 50 on my house. Are we expected to believe they were charged $40k for every change? If these are not “building people” who put them in charge of a building project? What’s sad isn’t even the money it’s how predictable this all is.
As is the fact that every change would have increased the profit for the contractors – strange that.
The sad part is, it was already at maximum capacity and needed an expansion pre covid.
Only use consultants when you yourself don’t know wtf you’re doing!
The reason the muppets spend millions on consultants and advisors is so that they can take point fingers when they do not do their jobs.
Always overruns – never accountability – everyone with anything to do with government knows it. That is the reason that going forward we will continue to have:
Always overruns – never accountability – everyone with anything to do with government knows it.
Another expensive disaster brought to us by the ppm. Moses K and his boy Stran B are the ones that should be answering all the questions. Thank God CPR fought to stop the cruise dock which would have been a bigger disaster. Cayman cannot trust the ppm to do anything right.
CPR should have been honored at Hero’s day for protecting our environment and seafaring. Oh wait PPM who supported the dock was giving out the awards……. wake up Cayman it’s almost Election Day. ………don’t forget the port, Smith Cove, silence over McKeeva, the unaccountably for the airport…….
Where is the accountability? Who was approving the actions of the consultants? CEO? Board?
Boy we got plenty to steal. My god. What a rich island.
Dats what you get baby.
What does anderson know. I knew him back when he was just an incompetent administrator for C+W. He’s not improved.
Blind leading the blind here.
Aren’t these the same guys (among others) who were supposed to “improve” the CIAA’s problems when appointed a few years ago?
what baloney from cig…if the consultants were negligent why don’t you sue them???….afraid you might lose by any chance?
follow the the trail of the lodge connections if you want peek inside pandora’s box.
We wonder why nothing is done about the Speaker of the House? same thing as this. They are all complicit from the Governor right down. These people believe they are above the law and approach. Shameful and a disgrace. How dare them.
9.24am Is there anything we can’t blame the Governor for?.
another glorious day for the civil service.
keep those award and pay rises coming franzie!
just another day in wonderland….zzzzzzzzzz.
10:25. The Airport Authority is not under the DG. My goodness why don’t you know this.
Poor you. Laying blame on the wrong person. Can you get anything right?
forget the finger pointing at overseas consultants…they will win the likely legal battle.
cig civil service incompetence strikes again. end of story
10:24 you mean you don’t know that the Airport Authority is not part of the civil service. The word Authority is a dead give away.
its a government funded body paid for by taxpayer. it’s the civil service…(hence the lack of accountability)
1:16 you are wrong again.
Okay let me explain like you are a 7 year old.
The civil service is headed by the Deputy Governor.
Statutory authorities and government companies are headed by private sector boards.
Together they are part of the Public Service. But they are managed very differently.
Get it now?
2.59pm Let me explain like you are a 77 year old.
The Statutory Authorities like the Civil Service comprise almost 100% Caymanian staff and the same for the most part applies to their private sector boards. There is a common theme, namely incompetence and total lack of accountability, you get what you overpay for.
Anon. So what you are saying is that Caymanian are incompetent but you refuse to leave the islands. Shame on you. You are right you don’t need prayer.
who pays them?
that will tell you everything you need to know.
The “private sector boards” are appointed by who exactly? Not the shareholders/taxpayers, that’s for sure.
These Board are appointed by the representatives of the shareholders/taxpayers – the Cabinet!
Heads should roll in the private sector for this.
yawn…delusional civil servant…..
9.55pm Look at the directors of the CIAA, are they on the board just to get free flights?, the baggage handlers know as much about aviation as they do.
So finally we get to reveal expatriate/foreign professional incompetence and these fools still allowed themselves to get burned also!
Shame you cant get a good coffee there. Remind us again why the Jessies Juice’s proposal was not chosen?
Then again, they are probably pretty happy they got turned down.
Non of this nonsense with the American consultants would have happened if they had gone with the Canadian proposal. We were taken to the cleaners by the American consultants.
RS&H is simply not comparable with AECON.
Normally, the reason you are taken to the cleaners is because you are dirty.
Private Sector Board, Private sector contractor, Private sector consultants CEO of Airport former private sector worker.
Factw
yawn…absolute nonsense.
its a government project, run by government agencies, run by people paid by cig.
it’s the civil service!
9:14 no! Accept the fact that the private sector is responsible for this.
We need to focus on the fact that we have a world class airport build without borrowing. That is an outstanding achievement.
We know the private sector is struggling at the moment with managing large projects but will get its act together soon.
In the meantime thank Building Control! An outstanding civil service entity.
12.01 World class just like the Civil Service?, why is it only public sector employers are given this distinction (by themselves). Apparently our bankers, accountants, lawyers do not deserve this accolade.
1. There is no way you can describe that airport as world class. Hell, it doesn’t even have enough seating capacity to seat all the passengers at peak times (absent a pandemic!), and no shelter for passengers to board or disembark from aircraft. Oh, and complete integration between domestic and international passengers.
2. No borrowing – lol. Right. You think CIAA had $74 million sitting in the bank account? They mortgaged their future passenger tax revenue (good luck with that BTW) just like borrowing against future salary to persuade a bank to lend you money to buy a house. Only difference is they borrowed from the government (or rather the taxpayer).
1.Private sector board members
2. Private sector contractor
3. Private sector consultant
4. Private sector did the drawing.
5. CEO former private sector worker.
Facts
Thank you to our Civil Service Building Control Unit. They saved the day.
Shut down the SAGC’S and return them to the civil service.
Clearly the private sector board system is not working.
ha…try harder jobsworth.
this is another in a long list of cig & civil service failures.
Ha, need you ask?!
Albert’s Amazingly expensive Airport!!!!
What experience does Albert or Thom have in building an airport and staying on budget? XXXX What do you expect??
This is the legacy of Moses and Stran. They run the show and direct the Authority and CEO
Wendy’s and Subway are more representative of true CaymanKind and therefore they deserve to be the last memory in a visitor’s mind.
Or could it be that the owners are better connected?
And it’s not big enough once we open back up, no covered jetways and we get wet when it rains. Another stellar project PPM.
8:29. That’s right reduce the size of the terminal and buy jet ways. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz
Well be have our MAX 737’s
Will they even make it to the airport?
WHY do all of government projects go over into the MILLIONS every single time I can see thousands but WHY ALWAYS MILLIONS??
ICTA & CIAA put those in charge in a brown paper bag shake them up and they all fall out together, incompetent and wasters of public funds. Caymanians will always be the losers to these munchers.
Cui Bono – follow the money to see why
Oh Yea, blame the ‘consultants”…
Who”WE”were supposed to supervise and fact-check and money-check..
How very ‘Caymanian’.
“Dnt blme me boss, it was der fult… I jst wrk hre. (Cayman educated).
Yes, criticize the sarcasm, but the facts prove the intent.
Yes I agree. Anderson and Guyton are just as much as fault as the consultants.
Lets do something about it, we are all talk…. hope they come into our homes and take our food next.
They both need to step down now.
72M and no jet ways, we still have to wait on plane if raining. Fire them all. Lets do something its not marbles we playing with.
yep…caymanians don’t do accountability.
To be fair, even the ultra organised Germans went three times over budget and 10 years behind schedule on Berlin Brandenburg Airport.
And our own colonial masters spent almost £300,000,000 on an airport for the 5,000 resident of St. Helena.
St. Helena is a strategic military location for the UK. It wasn’t for the residents.
Much like Cayman Brac, and Diego Garcia…
Guess again. The military runway is on Ascension. The St Helena runway is too short for any meaningful military operations.
Blackhawks.
A Blackhawk helicopter has a range of less than 500 miles. What military operation do you think might be achieved within 250 miles of the St Helena airport (assuming the helicopter needs to return to base)?
5.36pm Ha! – you forget Britain has aircraft carriers!.
Just another sad bill for the electorate to stomach. We voted in these clowns, we got the circus, they got the payoffs.
Did you read the article? RS&H messed up, we sat by and did nothing.
Anderson is clearly at fault, he is CIGs point man, which other boss was tasked with oversight on this project. I’m sure he was getting project updates and cost overruns on a weekly basis? Why the lag time before actually saying anything. No excuses here just slackness. The civil service needs a clear out, still too much dead wood and people in jobs they are not qualified for.
When you say “taxpayer money”, I think you are referring to the Passenger Facility Fees that the airport collects from passengers. It’s not a tax. It is a fee that can only be used for Airport development. Give them credit for using the funds for their intended purpose.
that’s called indirect taxation.
The currently Non Existent passenger facilities fees revenue…..
CIAA’s original $50mln estimate included tens of millions in unpaid passenger fee IOUs due from Cayman Airways. Those are ultimately further subsidies paid by Cayman public every 2-3 years via budget reshuffles, over and above the tens of millions in regular budgeted subsidy for sub-standard service, and three years of secret plane leases for aircraft we will never fly in.
A users fee, a tax, call it what you wish, we are paying it. Mr. Anderson and Guyton is not going to fly 100 times a day to justify spending their inputs. They are going to abuse your money “collected” to enhance their incompetence.
Blame Canada
As an engineer who works in both America and Canada I know that RS&H is not known for their expertise in airport construction, while the Canadian AECON builds airports all over the world.
If you do not believe me just Google the 2 companies and ask which company would you choose if you wanted to build an airport.
So,
Who authorized the overruns…
Who is paying those 22m…
Talk about accountability.
The answers given were sickening. “We are not construction people” You should be booted period.
Moses Kirkconnell and Stran Bodden Tom Guyton were running the show and directly responsible for this expensive mess at the airport
PPM at it’s finest.
As a resident of over 25 years, I can remove the word “airport” and insert “high school”, “port”, or any number of government run projects. I have never heard of anything coming in on time or on budget. They should have just picked the Canadian consortium to build the airport as they did in Bermuda and their s includes secure US pre-clearance.
https://www.passengerterminaltoday.com/news/airport/lf-wade-international-airport-opens-state-of-the-art-passenger-terminal-building.html
Bermuda had US pre-clearance long before their new airport was built. But you can ask Mr. Famous, one of their MPs who is always calling in to the talk shows in Cayman, if he thinks they got a good deal for their new airport from which they will not receive a single penny of revenue for the next 30 years, but will have to pickup shortfalls in revenue as they are doing now due to the Covid pandemic.
https://www.royalgazette.com/opinion-writer/opinion/article/20201211/airport-deal-it-didnt-have-to-be-like-this/
9:00, You are aware that every airport in the Caribbean is now in the same situation as Bermuda in terms of revenue shortfalls due to COVID.
Bermuda is not picking up all the revenue shortfalls as the Canadian group has also taken a hit too.
Key point to ask is how many Bermudians have been trained and are now working at the new airport there as compared to our airport? Guarantee you will not like the answer.
Au contraire. Bermuda has guaranteed the airport operator a minimum revenue and paid out over $20 million in 2020. The operator gets to keep all revenue for 30 years, so by the time the airport is handed over to the Bermuda government you can be assured that it will be time for a rebuild. Nobody is going to carry out maintenance on a building that is going to be handed over to someone else in a few years, so expect a real dilapidated look in the final years of private ownership.
https://www.royalgazette.com/news/article/20201030/skyport-asks-for-15m-to-cover-revenue-lost-to-covid-19/
12:11, Nassau and Bridgetown were built 10 years ago using the same model as Bermuda and they certainly didn’t have a dilapidated look when I went through there a year ago.
You simply do not know what you are talking about.
9:00 – Perhaps you do not know / understand that by the end of last year, the Canadian group had invested $370 million into Bermuda capital improvements tied to the new Bermuda airport.
How much did the American consultants and other foreign firms linked into our airport invest?
Sorry Bobo, but the answer is ZERO DOLLARS.
Sad but true. We were taken again.
They Canadians were picked on this project though….much different outcome.
Might as well change the motto on the Coat of Arms to “It wasn’t me”.
plus the national song should now be…’it wasn’t me’ by shaggy
Everyone knows you can low ball when bidding gov’t contracts and cost overruns will be quickly approve….especially if you are friendly with the those awarding.
Fire them and the consultants. Why are these people so loose with our money? If it were theirs we would have our values worth. Sad days for all Cayman.
Who was the main contractor anyway?
McAlpine?