LOCAL NEWS

Airport expansion is big money story Published on Sunday, March 7, 2010 Email To Friend    Print Version The Turks and Caicos Airport Authority has received or is scheduled to be the recipient of a $100 million loan. Unconfirmed but generally reliable sources indicate that Scotia Bank may be providing or arranging the loan. It is understood this loan will be repaid out of departure taxes. The purpose spoken to by the chairman of the Authority, Hebert Ingham, and CEO John Smith, is to expand the airport to accommodate trans Atlantic flights on the premise this will attract increased tourism from European and Asian countries. Wide body aircraft are to be accommodated and it is understood the expansion will include an enlarged terminal, with passenger jet ways, and a parking garage. The airport runway and parking aprons will be extended. Discussions have been underway to return the full ownership of the airport to the government and people of the TCI. To effect this move the Airport Authority has or will buy out a firm known as Provo Airport Company (PAC). PAC consists of two shareholders: Coxco, a private company, and the Turks and Caicos Islands Government. In a recent statement, Ingham indicated that $46 million will fund the buyout, with $30 million going to purchase the rights of Coxco. It is assumed therefore that the remaining $16 million will purchase the remaining shares of PAC from the government. If this is true, the interim government will receive $16 million from the airport loan to use to cover a portion of the budget shortfall. TCI Net News has attempted to verify this with John Smith but he could not be reached and did not return the call. The interim government has not mentioned this possible windfall and they have yet to publish the amount they are receiving from the National Insurance Board (NIB) as part of the $85 million loan. Presently, the fate of this loan is unknown also. The use of NIB funds to pay debt and operating expenses has been called a “raid” on the pension fund by Progressive National Party (PNP) leader and former premier Galmo Williams at a recent press conference. Adding to the confusion is that, near the end of the Misick/Hall administration, they had proposed to have NIB purchase the government’s shares of PAC. It is not known if this ever occurred. This would have given then Finance Minister Floyd Hall $16 million in working capital. The actual construction phase, which applies to the airport runway and apron, has been tendered and a bid opening took place in the last week. It is understood there were seven bids, ranging from $33 to $43 million. When the bids were publicly opened, Smith indicated they may not necessarily accept the low bidder.   Reads : 440 Back... Comments: No comments on this topic yet. Be the first one to submit a comment. Back... Send us your comments!   Send us your comments on this article for publication in our Readers' Forum or as a Letter to the Editor. All fields are required and in the interest of openness and transparency we will no longer accept anonymous submissions. We therefore request that all submissions include a name for publication, regardless of content. We will in special circumstances protect a writer's identity only after we have established good cause for anonymity, otherwise we will not be able to publish the submission. For your contribution to reach us, you must (a) provide a valid e-mail address and (b) click on the validation link that will be sent to the e-mail address you provide.  If the address is not valid or you don't click on the validation link, it will be a waste of your time typing your submission because we will never see it! Your Name: Your Email: (Validation required) Comments: Enter Validation Code *