The Tribune

YESTERDAY The Tribune published an interesting Associated Press article from Georgetown, Guyana on government’s suspension of expansion work being done at Cheddi Jagan airport.

What made it interesting for Bahamian readers was that the $138 million contract for the design and expansion of Jeddi Jagan was awarded to a Chinese company, whose work was suspended because of failure to meet completion deadlines and do proper engineering studies.

Georgetown’s complaints echoed what we have been hearing for the past few months from Cable Beach where work, so near completion, came to a sudden stop because of similar complaints by the Baha Mar developer against his contractor — China State Construction Company.

The Guyanese government awarded China Harbour Engineering Company a $138 million contract in November 2011 with completion date projected for September this year. Because of the problems — missed deadlines and failure to do proper engineering studies — officials do not think that the 3,200-foot extension to the main runway can be completed before 2017 – two years late.

So far – from the $138 million contract – it is estimated that the overall cost will be nearer $150 million for the Georgetown airport. The project — like the Baha Mar resort at Cable Beach — is funded by the EXIM Bank of China, with the Guyana government investing about $5.9 million to faciliate the acquisition of supervisory consultancy services for the project.

On Wednesday Guyana’s Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson ordered the Chinese company to cease work at the airport until the disputes are resolved.

One local Guyanese commentator in reviewing the overruns and items “to be determined” commented that “when China Habour Engineering Company has done with us, we will be truly finished.”

We hope that in the next few months — with the complicated decisions being made by the Christie government in dealing with similar problems at Baha Mar — Bahamians will not come to the same end-of-world conclusion as their Guyanese counterpart.