Finance Minister Colm Imbert believes there is a “malicious attempt” by the media to smear the new Tobago airport terminal.
In a media release on Tuesday, Finance Minister Colm Imbert said a leaked Cabinet Note on the Tobago Airport Project clearly indicates the project’s timeline, the challenges faced, amendments to and phases of the project, the costs per fiscal year to date, the new requested funding to complete the project, and most importantly the “justifications” for those requests.
The Minister pointed to a specific newspaper report which he said not only overstated the cost of the airport project to the public by at least $100 million, but failed to properly utilise the information in the very Cabinet Note to inform the public of the actual cost of the project to date and the further funding being requested.
Minister Imbert said he has produced documentary evidence of the structural integrity of the project to the media from a range of experts working on it, specifically
1)The specialist engineering consultants, KS&P, on the project, who were engaged by NIDCO, to review the structural designs, and
2)The specialist international construction consultants, Gleeds, who were engaged by the Ministry of Finance, to seek its interest on the project.
In a letter from the National Infrastructure Development Company Ltd (NIDCO) to Minister Imbert on December 6th, it stated that the 90% structural designs were submitted for Buildings B and C of the Airport project, with the new Reviewer Arun Buch concluded that the structure was too flexible and needed to be reinforced, especially due to the extensive curtain wall, and height of the building to the roof among other things.
But NIDCO confirmed that what was constructed was done in accordance with the specified international codes, noting that Reviewer Arun Buch recommended that the contractor revert to using previously presented design approach used for 30% of the designs.
NIDCO said structural designs of Buildings B & C and the foundations to Building C, having not yet started at the time, were done in accordance with the new approach, with the contractor accordingly submitting a claim for such compensation.
And the specialist international construction consultants, Gleeds also responded to published reports regarding the Tobago Airport, noting that “It is the nature of such complex schemes that ongoing revisions of both costs and timelines are entirely appropriate”.
Gleeds said figures contained in its report dated November 23rd, reflect a number of scenarios which are designed to allow the Ministry of Finance to view the full range of eventualities.
It added that, “It is common for construction projects of this nature to experience changes and fluctuations to budget and timeline due to several differing factors, noting that some of these variations are outside of the control of the project management team.”