Member of Parliament for main opposition A Partner-ship for National Unity (APNU) Joe Harmon is questioning whether Guyana would be getting value for money with the proposed airport expansion at Timehri and is concerned that monies could be siphoned off given the opaqueness of the financial arrangements.
China Harbour and Engineering Company (CHEC) and the Government of Guyana late last year signed a contract for the expansion of the airport in the amount of US$138 million.
“My concern is whether we will get value for money. What will we get for the money?” he questioned. “We don’t want to know that the airport is built with US$50 million and [the rest of the money vanishes],” he said.
“It is the financial arrangements that we are not fully aware of.
What is the rate of interest? What is the length of the loan?” he asked.
“CHEC provided us with their bills of quantities so that we could monitor the construction of the airport. However, the fortunes of the residents in the area remain a concern for us,” added Harmon.
He said that while there would have been studies done in the past for the expansion of the airport, there has been nothing to suggest that the airport proposed is what the country needs.
He said that while he understands the need for the development of the airport, he is not convinced that the way the government went about it was the best way.
Further, he expressed concern for what the debt Guyana is undertaking to execute this project may eventually mean for the taxpayer.
He said that the rationale that the government gave for going ahead with the new airport cannot withstand scrutiny. “In 2000 they were speaking about expanding the runway,” he said, speaking of a report done at that time which the Government said it will rely on instead of doing a new Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).
“It is an old report, therefore the whole dynamics of the area could change, and you cannot rely on it.
This development is not taking place in a desert. You have [to ensure that you consider the people living there], and that is why we wrote the Inter-American Development Bank,” he said.
It is felt that as many as 2,500 people could be displaced if the plans for the new airport come to fruition.
Further, Harmon at a press conference some weeks ago said that the Splashmins resort could also be negatively affected by the new airport.
In June, Harmon had written to CHEC after officials of the company came here without meeting with the opposition. “A full engagement with us would have ensured a better understanding of the project that could have conditioned our support for it, as we feel that a major opportunity has been missed,” said Harmon in the letter. “Please be assured that as representatives of the people we will continue to carefully scrutinise this project and any other project of such scale and magnitude as it relates to infrastructural works in Guyana,” Harmon wrote.
CHEC is one of the many subsidiaries of China Com-munications and Construc-tion Company, which was slapped with the World Bank debarment sanction from 2009 to 2017.
