By Ria Taitt, Newsday

The AirportS Authority of Trinidad and Tobago, with the approval of the then Minister, Sadiq Baksh, varied the contract held by Calmaquip for the maintenance of the airport from $20 million to $50 million.

The variation of some 150 percent more was approved without tender, in breach of the AATT procurement rules. It was also done before any work on the Airport project even began.

Baksh has been claiming that he had no direct hand in the project, but Newsday was able to obtain the Approval Document signed by the former Minister.

The Agreement of Variation, dated was prepared by attorney-at-law, Russell Martineau SC.

The new agreement was signed on 15th August, 2000, between the then Chairman of AATT, Tyrone Gopee, and CEO of Calmaquip, Raul Gutierrez and Secretary, Rafael Portela.

The Agreement of Variation also gave Calmaquip significantly higher amounts in the event that the contract is terminated before the end of the 10 year period. Under the amended agreement, if the AATT terminates the contract in the first year, it has to pay Calmaquip US $8.2 million. This compared to US $3.6 million under the original agreement. The scale goes as follows: Termination in the second year - US $3.1 in the original agreement was upgraded to US $7.1 million in the Agreement of Variation. Termination in the third year - US $2.8 was upgraded to US $6.5 in the amended agreement. Termination in the fourth year - US $2.3 million, was increased to US $5.4. The penalty to AATT for any premature termination continues until the ninth year and the pattern of increases (in the penalty) under the new agreement also persist.

The Variation of Agreement also provided rent-free, some 1,500 square feet of land at the airport site, to Calmaquip. The contractor was also given 600 square feet of office space in the new terminal building under the amended arrangement. The original contract had provided 8,000 and 300 square feet respectively.

According to the documents the rationale for the increase in the contract price arose out of the new Second Schedule which defined the electrical, water and plumbing, and airconditioning equipment and facilities. However a member of the Joint Consultative Council who looked at the document, noted that the facilities provided by Calmaquip for US $30 million more, could have been easily provided by a local company for less than US $ 500 a year. "That contract is about six times the value," the JCC spokesman stated.

The spokesman also noted that under the maintenance contract, there was provision which states that any "Extraordinary Repair" is the responsibility of the owner. This clause states that once the cost of parts for corrective maintenance and repairs, exceeds US $5,000 per incident, the AATT is financially responsible. Under the clause, Calmaquip’s spending for any given year on parts for corrective maintenance and repairs is limited to US $250,000.

Reproduced from:
http://www.newsday.co.tt/news3.shtml