Last Updated on December 16, 2019, 11:36 PM AST by Anthony Morris
The SKN government without the permission of the Contractors captured the new cruise ship pier this morning to facilitate a mock opening ceremony because of serious criticism that “the Second Cruise Ship Pier Spoil “ during the Parliamentary Debate of the 2020 Budget last week Friday.
This project has cost the taxpayers of SKN EC$168 million so far, but is expected to increase further to about EC $200M when all of the additional works are costed according to the Rt Hon Dr Denzil Douglas, Parliamentary Shadow Minister of Finance in his enlightening Response to the rather empty 2020 Budget. The national Budget was presented the day before by PM Hariis who is also Minister of Finance.
There is an ongoing and highly charged unsettled dispute between the government of Canada and the Contractors on one hand and the government of SKN and SCASPA on the other hand, about outstanding invoices for works already done which run into several million dollars, and disagreements over work yet to be undertaken but which have been costed but for which the SKN government and SCASPA have been unresponsive to the many queries from the Contractors.
Although the pier has been appropriately designed and built to specifications, the pier has not been commissioned for public use and has not been handed over to SCASPA or the SKN government because of the unsettled disputes.
A series of questions and requests for meetings to Minister Lan “Patches” Liburd and the government, on behalf of the contractors and the government of Canada have been intentionally ignored over several months.
This chaos is due to the intransigence of the Minister responsible for SCASPA and Prime Minister Harris.
This most grotesque and reckless incident this morning in which the SKN government CAPTURED the pier and forced into the Harbour two small dingy vessels bypassing the permission of the contractors is beyond logistics and logics.
This, I believe has now taken these unresolved issues to another level of disgrace and dishonor, where the government has now acted with such massive disregard for the environmental integrity, safety and security of our natural and human resources.
The selfish government’s behavior undermines and promotes unbridled adverse interference with the robust regulatory best practices framework typical of the approval of projects like the new cruise pier, and undermines the good relationship we’ve always enjoyed with Canada.
Since this government has created a crude crisis and has acted without any disciplinary limits in order to promote an incomplete project with millions of dollars of unpaid bills still outstanding, just to meet its political agenda for upcoming general elections early next year, I call upon the PM Harris and Minister Liburd to abolish and abandon this outrageous ??gargantuan crisis-creating behaviour today. I urge in the interests of our national image and international best practices, that both governments will continue to operate within the framework of their signed Agreements and the Contractors and SCASPA be guided by the arbitration guidelines and await the outcome of the arbitration process and ruling of July 2020.
Please stop the chaos and shut down this escalating catastrophe!
Anthony Morris covers stories related to politics and regional developments. His in-depth reporting about governance and reforms makes him stand out in regional journalism, with a deep analysis of political trends and their impact on Caribbean communities.
