Over $400 million was on Thursday approved to go towards providing baggage handling systems at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA).
The total sum of $420 million was a supplementary provision which was being sought by the Ministry of Public Works for the provision of additional resources for a baggage handling system. As the assembly went into the Committee of Supply to discuss the supplementary provisions, Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill, stated that the total sum will go towards the handling of baggage as there was no provision to deal with this issue.
Opposition Member of Parliament, Annette Ferguson, asked what procurement system was used, if the previously voted provision has been expended, and if the supplementary provision sought will be used before the end of the year.
Edghill responded that nothing that is being done at the CJIA as it relates to the expansion project is a secret as everything is done in open tender and many persons are aware of the procurement process. He added that the previously voted provision of $150 million has already been committed.
“The $420 mil that is being sought, unashamedly I have to say, that in the revised contract that we inherited, there was no provision to deal with the handling of baggage when you check in at the airline,” the minister proffered.
He explained that when passengers check in at the airport at an airline counter they have to fetch their bags to a screening machine which he contended is a security risk as many things can happen in transit. As such, he posited that the provision is for the acquisition of a conveyor belt service that will take bags to screening, a holding area, and another secondary screening, before the flight is boarded by passengers.
“This is to improve service at the airport and to continue the modernising and it is also correcting what should have been done in the first place because no modern international airport should have a check-in system without a conveyor belt and baggage handling equipment to move your baggage to security screening and then ultimately for loading for dispatch out of the country, so that is what this is for.”
Meanwhile Edghill noted that as they sought the house’s approval for the sum of money, the ministry has been following the procurement process and as such, on approval of the funds they will immediately engage the contract and have the process going.
