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**QUEEN** » 2011-09-02 20:48

Why is it that everything we do here always ends badly and/or never gets finished...WHY. .???...Antigua people too tief..!!..that is why..!

**tenman** » 2011-08-30 20:42

InteresteD are you and the minister lovers? No one except you has mentioned the former minister who was the substantial minister of sports during the fencing saga, name. Do you dream about him? I ask because you are always defending the cry baby even when no one calls his name
..

**InteresteD** » 2011-08-30 20:13

Is it not passing strange that no one mentioned that Lovell was the Minister with Cort through these negotiations... ....not Maginley who your other bloggers arebtrying to blame........

**Morris** » 2011-08-29 21:53

It is a good thing that I can swim and tread water.

**tenman** » 2011-08-29 20:46

The airport U.S.$50,690,251 USD bond

Uses (includes along with the bond PFC Account (1,481,48 balance as of October 1, 2009.) and Airport funds (4,541,570 balance as of October 1, 2009 currently on deposit with ABI Bank Antigua Limited) totaling $56,713,302 USD
Repayment of advances to ABI Bank Limited 4,800,000 8.5%
Funding of Antigua Debt Service Reserve Account 1,408,758 2.5%
Funding of U.S. Debt Service Reserve Account 541,242 1.0%
Funding of Cost Overrun Account 2,403,573 4.2%
Transaction Costs 1,669,475 2.9%
Payment to holders of short-term commercial paper notes 19,100,000 33.7%
Funding of the Construction Account 26,790,254 47.2%
Total uses of funds $56,713,302 100.%
..

**John French II** » 2011-08-29 18:32

Notes From A Native Son Of The Rock. Morris et al: The prodigal son has returned, let us kill the fatted bull, drink some bull foot soup and celibrate. It is in our Euro Christian and African Culture. Boy, the eyes will be bulging, froth spewing from the lips, tongues wagging and chuptzing for days. The former CEO misread the Political Directorate and the Blues. Those were heady days. The Engineer kept watch over the Construction and the Administration. AS CEO, he received recommendaation s from the Engineer. As they say the Devil is in the details. Given that we are surrounded by water, I prefer to say that you are in the Deep Blue.
For Others:
In saying that the devil is in the details, I simply mean that small things in plans, drawings & Specs that are often overlooked can cause serious problems later on. Some surprises are pleasant, those planned by the devil are generally not, so it pays to avoid pitfalls which are preventable by remembering that the devil's in the details. In the world in general, one gains a reputation for being careful and thoughtful as well as difficult to fool. He Paid A Heavy Price. Have Mercy Pon Him. Respect.

**Microwave Chef** » 2011-08-29 17:47

HMMM all chef can say is that this story seems to have more and deeper holes than the airport runway. :-)

CHEF IS SURE THESE ARE SOME OF THE HOLES OUR TAX MONEY WAS PUT INTO :oops:

Chef proposes that we fill these holes at the airport with the same B holes that are responsible for this holly mess.
Chef says if that fails bring lots of holly men and pray. that's the best option UPP has on hand for this . ;-)

**Morris** » 2011-08-29 17:40

I am reluctant to champion Mr. Hurst as a patriot. His long silence did not do us any good; he should have been a whistleblower the moment he saw things going awry.

**John French II** » 2011-08-29 16:57

Notes From A Native Son Of The Rock. The Former CEO, whether late or timely has done us all a Service. Was he pushed? Did he leave for ethical reasons? Did he see the handwriting on the wall? He has spoken and has pointed us all in various directions. The tidbits on Financing, Construction and Operations urges us all to Follow The Money. It is self evident that what we have seen is a confluence of events and forces which as the engineers would say produces a Resultant Force in timing of the critical path to the Ballot.
Nothing happens by chance, there is always a Puppeteer who is awash with campaign funds. In my comments on this matter, I have laid out the possible structural and geotechnical reasons for the holes in the Upgraded Work. The New Work exhibits no such failures. The CEO reminds that he negotiated the Contract and also of the Site Engineer, Not a Clerk of the Work. He further discloses. The Brazilian Company Fired Many of its Top Officials. As one who worked abroad and understood the consequences of failure, he misread his Native Culture and committed harikari. He deserves much more credit. The Concept of Patriotism Versus Enemy. Have Mercy Pon Us.

**Lionman** » 2011-08-29 16:19

Negotiations like this is not conducted behind closed doors it is something that is exposed to all government officials so where was ALP to object towards any flaws in the plan. Each party only wait until something goes wrong to point fingers and claim foul. Well i am claiming foul on all these wotless political figures who do not have this country best interest at heart.

**Lionman** » 2011-08-29 16:14

All i can say is what a true shame. Scandalous actions of money exchanging from hand to hand. I agree with the blogger who has mentioned what I have been echoing so often of having your own people do the work. There are so many young people awarded scholarships but not being challenged to put the information and knowledge to use because the governments are not willing to reinvest in their own people making another country or outside organization rich. Where was ALP and other political figures when negotiations were conducted about the repavement of the runways.

**Objectivity** » 2011-08-29 15:50

Andrade Guttierrez is known the world over for constructing roads, runways, bridges etc. Though it may sound as a huge project for Antigua in the larger scheme of things is only a drop in the bucket for other countries where this company has worked. In addition, Scott Wilson another global company was contracted to manage the oversight of Andrade Guttierrez. However, they were removed by Hurst because they were unwilling to cut corners.

It now could be that the chickens have come home to roost. The inferior materials may have been used to construct the runway surface. It may just be that material from the old surface was milled into the new to save cost. This could possibly be the reason for the porous nature of the current runway surface.

St. Kitts commenced extending and resurfacing its runway long after we did and completed long before we did while adding parking area for approximately 6 wide bodied aircraft and there has not been any like reports about their runway surface. Their success was that they had competent persons managing the process. Need I say more?

**Professor** » 2011-08-29 15:11

JP Farnsworth: there are several local contractors that could habdle the job, but if ABI Bank is involved you can bet your life that a foreign company will be selected.

The idea of floating bonds to repay the short-term financing is disengenuous, they knew it was untenable and never really intended to do it.

While they were talking about floating bonds they were negotiating with Corporacion America who offered the government all the money it needed to fix the airport and pay off the Brazilian company, but it would have to relinquish the management of the airport.

I am sure that such an arrangement may have the unwanted consequence of reducing corruption so that was that ...

**interesting** » 2011-08-29 14:29

well here is a little fiasco, the water used to mix the cement and pour on the soil did not have the correct PH balance. most of this water came from the sea view farm pond which is very salty for cement and such and also from neighboring ponds.

So now who is to be blamed??? More in the mortar!!

**Anderson** » 2011-08-29 14:25

If I can recall The same situation occured in Trinidad concerning Piarco Airport where the gov't screwed the people of Trinbago which were taken for a loop by the Panday gov't when they were in power. It is a bleedy shame that peoples all over the Caribbean have to put up with these thiefing ** that squandered their respective countries resources and the people have no recourse to recoup any and all monies!!!

**P.J Walter** » 2011-08-29 12:46

They will never be an inquire into the ariport runaway,or the playfield fences.... Guess WHY!!!

**Morris** » 2011-08-29 11:30

I wonder if they'll ever call for an inquiry into this fiasco, because it most certainly needs one. Heaven knows Antiguans and Barbudans are some of the hardest workers in the C'bean, and they darn sure do not deserve this type of abuse by the gov't.

I am truly baffled at the amount of money that has been lost, stolen, disappeared, or unaccounted for because of mismanagement, greed, trickery, misappropriatio n, and dishonesty under the guise of fancy projects (no need to revisit them), while our leaders just expect the citizens to look the other way as if ANU has forests filled with money trees.

I can only shake my head in disbelief to know that the amount requested from the IMF is just a mere drop in the bucket compared to the amount our leaders have squandered.

**Antiguan Blogger** » 2011-08-29 10:22

Another useless statutory body headed by people destroying it while benefiting financially. Add APUA, Port Authority, Social Security, MBS, Solid Waste, Transport Board, ABIIT and ABHTI. They are all headed by a bunch of tyrants and representatives from civil society who don't know if the son rises in the east or the west. Give the right people the job and it will get done!

**Joseph Kornn** » 2011-08-29 09:55

As far as I know, the works were done between 10:30pm to 5am because there is no flights at this time. Also to fix the existing base problem at the RW the airport would be closed for many days and that's why this was not authorized by ABAA.
The authorities are not telling all the truth!
Once again, the brazilian Company is not liable for this kind of problems, they did what they was contracted to do and it was a perfect work, see the extention they dis, there is no issues at that end, and even though the was never paid for what they did and still are waiting to get paid and complete the works.
Also the brazilian Company paid and well paid everyone and as far as I know they don't owe one single cent to no one.
So, who has to be sued???

**John..B** » 2011-08-29 09:48

Let's look at the ABBbi's commitment to the party and the deal that had to be done to win at all cost...
Looks at the board rewards,, Sir Everttee ''command and control of IRD/Customs..
Sir Clarvis Port Chairman,APUA Chairman for life!!!...Senat or..Silvia..
AMB..Lady Joan...ECT..ECT '''''''''''''

**tenman** » 2011-08-29 09:08

bUZZBOMB there is an article www.caribarena.com/antigua/news/latest/5692-airport-authority-sells-bonds.html which confirms that there was a plan to float a bond. The airport was initially financed via a short term note but the idea was to make it a bond. Senator Weston for weeks has been speaking about how the government bad played ABI because they were left holding this unpaid short term note. Back in 2009, try and remember that the government increased the airport charges. Part of the reason for doing this was to make a bond offer more attractive (these increases were highlighted in the prospectus for the bond).

..

**JP Farnswroth** » 2011-08-29 08:48

another Bologna story. Cheap materials were used and they are failing plain and simple. I still can't understand why a company from Brazil was given the job. Certainly we must have contractors here in Antigua that would consider it an honor to fix and build the airport. Where is the home grown pride. To be able to say I built that building is a consruction workers greatest claim it will be there long after him. To build the airport and runway with Antiguans and have them proudly say Yes! we built that runway. Now we have an excuse to blame som company in another country.

**Tired** » 2011-08-29 08:36

The Airport ASuthority is getting a new CEO, why they don't get a new Management team for the PORT AUTHORITY. It is like pulling teeth having to deal with the Manager. She is jack of all trade and master of none at all. I will tell here LEAVE with her head up high. The PORT done with.

**Fed Up** » 2011-08-29 08:22

What a very poor article, tells us nothing of any value, my 6 year old grand daughter could have done better.

**Morris** » 2011-08-29 07:17

* Since we never paid them the full amount to complete the project, why do our leaders continue to mislead the public by telling them that we spent $100M?
* How much money do we still owe this company, and what happened to the rest of the $100M?
* How can Mr. Hurst now claim ignorance to "holes" when he left at the end of 09 because of similar safety issues?
* Thanks Mr. Hurst, for excluding yourself from the equation and shifting the spotlight BT Lewis, but who did he report to? I, and probably many others, do not believe that the buck stopped with him, so others knew that we were in trouble.

Can someone please stick a fork in ANU? It appears that we were well cooked.

**joejoe** » 2011-08-29 07:03

"The former CEO added that the work was carried out while the airport was closed from 10:30 pm to 5:30 am. However, Hurst noted that a local engineer – BT Lewis - was also appointed to oversee the work, which he was mandated to verify."

whistle, whistle, whistle

**Buzzbomb** » 2011-08-29 05:23

Hurst says the government was intending to transfer airport assets to the statutory body so that ABI could float a bond issue. And who is the statutory body, the airport authority?
Anyway, so I'm to understand that gov't would mortgage the airport, a facility of such vital national interest to the country, to allow a private bank to raise capital from selling bonds (to who knows who), so that the money could be loaned back to the government to pay for the airport renovations in turn? Either I'm missing something, or this convoluted financing scheme is borderline corrupt and just digging a hole to fill a hole. And I'm not talking about potholes.

**carvaa** » 2011-08-29 03:07

Mr Hurst best advice is to sue the company and yet he is telling us the government still owe's this same company. Are we then looking at a counter-suit, and in the end more money and time lost by our government to the courts?

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