By Dawne Parris
Minister of Tourism and International Transport Ian Gooding-Edghill on Wednesday hit back at accusations from a man who was once responsible for that portfolio that bad political management is to blame for systems issues at the Grantley Adams International Airport (GAIA).
Director of Engineering at GAIA Karen Walkes also reiterated that despite not being able to overhaul systems at the island’s sole airport, maintenance was continuously being done to keep them functioning to the tune of $8 million annually.
Gooding-Edghill insisted that contrary to claims by Richard Sealy, a former tourism minister in a Democratic Labour Party (DLP) administration, the Government had improved what it inherited not only at the airport but in several agencies that fall under the Ministry of Tourism and International Transport.
“You only have to go and see the Grantley Adams International Airport to see what we have done as a government since we came to office in 2018, and all the remedial actions that we have to take and the fact that we are still spending money,” he said in the House of Assembly on day two of debate on the Appropriation Bill 2023.
“I believe if it wasn’t close to it was over $100 million that we spent to resurface the runway which was in urgent need of resurfacing and Barbadians when they touch down at Grantley Adams International Airport can see the comfort,” Gooding-Edghill asserted, adding that a new parking apron for private jets was among the works done at GAIA.
His comments came in response to St Michael South Member of Parliament Kirk Humphrey’s question about his view of Sealy’s comments published in the Barbados TODAY article on Tuesday.
Sealy, the DLP’s spokesperson on tourism, international affairs and international business, had told Barbados TODAY that he was “appalled and baffled at what I’m hearing about the Grantley Adams International Airport”.
He made reference to last Tuesday’s overnight closure of the airport because of faulty runway edge light circuits and the Director of Engineering at the GAIA Karen Walkes disclosing in the well of the Lower House, on Monday, that several systems at the airport were outdated and in need of an upgrade.
“I can tell you, certainly for as long as I was minister, and even prior to being minister when I was in Cabinet, that that facility received every single cent that it needed as far as having to function effectively,” the former minister said, adding that when he left office in 2018, GAIA Inc. had $30 million in retained earnings and a warehouse with $3 million in spare parts.
“When I left office, they used to take care of themselves and now all of a sudden I am hearing that there’s a maintenance crisis. Now I am hearing about runway lights that are not working on a runway that was resurfaced only months ago. Something drastically wrong has taken place since 2018 and I am not accepting that it is some long-standing issue.”
However, Gooding-Edghill stressed that “if no maintenance at all had been operationalised then we would have been in serious trouble”.
Walkes also stressed the scale of the maintenance done at GAIA, as she sought to explain comments she made on day one of the Estimates Debate.
She had said then that “replacements and major maintenance” had been deferred “for quite a period of time and many of our systems are actually past their original planned use of life”, but GAIA had been doing quite well with the aged equipment.
On Wednesday, stressing that the deferrals occurred around 2014 because of the economic downturn, she explained that the major maintenance she mentioned referred to “a complete refurbishment where we take systems completely offline and refurbish them”.
“That was delayed. However, we continued and even ramped up our maintenance to ensure that the equipment we had remained in service.
“The airport spends on average $8 million a year in maintenance, so it is not that maintenance is not being done at the airport. I don’t think systems that in some cases are three, four, five years past their estimated life would still continue to operate and, for the most part, operate well if we were not seriously engaged in the maintenance of the facilities at the airport,” Walkes said.
Minister Gooding-Edghill used the opportunity to point out that when the current administration took over, the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI) was underfunded and this government’s introduction of the airport service charge had put the agency on a sustainable funding path.
Charging that it was the previous government that was, in fact, guilty of bad management, he said that from 2014 to 2018, no audited financial statements were ever prepared or laid in Parliament.
“Perhaps he [Sealy] should explain to this country why during his tenure that the financial statements were never prepared and never laid. No systems, no processes and procedures were in place at the BTMI,” Gooding-Edghill said, adding that those financials have since been done under the BLP government.
He added that the country will soon be given a full picture of what this administration inherited at the Ministry of Tourism and what has been done to put the industry on a sustainable path.
(DP)
