PM TO MAKE A STATEMENT ON HIGHWAY LAND ROW

Amid grow­ing pub­lic out­rage over the non-val­u­a­tion of 1200 acres of land giv­en to the Chinese devel­op­ers of the North-South link of Highway 2000, Prime Minister, Andrew Holness, is to make a state­ment ‘as ear­ly as tomorrow’.

This, after Contractor General, Dirk Harrison, says he’ll be inten­si­fy­ing his probe into the mul­ti-bil­lion dol­lar North-South Highway con­tract between the gov­ern­ment and China Harbour Engineering Company, (CHEC).

Public con­cerns have been mount­ing fol­low­ing a rev­e­la­tion by the National Road Operating and Constructing Company, NROCC, in Parliament last week that the 1200 acres of state lands, includ­ing prime real estate at Mammee Bay and Caymanas, were not valuated.

In 2012, then Transport and Works Minister, Dr. Omar Davies, signed a 50-year con­ces­sion agree­ment with CHEC for the con­struc­tion of the highway.

At the time, he talked up the project to Parliament and pro­ceed­ed, despite con­cerns raised by then Contractor General, Greg Christie.

The 1200 acres of land rep­re­sents the government’s invest­ment in lieu of cash. But with­out a val­u­a­tion, it’s uncer­tain if the gov­ern­ment got val­ue for mon­ey on the deal.

Speaking with Nationwide News today, Minister Without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth, Dr. Horace Chang, says the Urban Development Corporation, UDC, has the val­u­a­tions for the land giv­en to the Chinese developers.

He says Prime Minister Holness will make a state­ment on the matter.

In the mean­time, Dr. Chang is seek­ing to allay con­cerns about the via­bil­i­ty of the East-West sec­tion of the Highway.

NROCC’s Managing Director, Ivan Anderson, revealed at last week’s meet­ing of Parliament’s Public Administration and Appropriations Committee, (PAAC) that it would take at least anoth­er 20 years before the North-South Highway would make a profit.

Mr. Anderson told the PAAC that CHEC is cur­rent­ly spend­ing approx­i­mate­ly USD$30-million in debt ser­vic­ing per annum on the highway.

But he says it’s gen­er­at­ing rev­enues of only USD$18-million per year, mean­ing it’s spend­ing almost twice as much as it’s earn­ing on it.

Dr. Chang, while admit­ting some sec­tions of the high­way will not imme­di­ate­ly turn a prof­it, says he expects the devel­op­ment to be prof­itable over time.

The North-South Highway runs from Caymanas in St Catherine to Mammee Bay in St Ann. It’s sig­nif­i­cant­ly cut trav­el time.

Meanwhile, for­mer Contractor General, Greg Christie, says the admis­sion that the US-mul­ti-mil­lion dol­lar North-South Highway deal is not com­mer­cial­ly viable is an exam­ple of what hap­pens when an anti-cor­rup­tion agency is blocked from ensur­ing transparency.

The admis­sion that the project is not com­mer­cial­ly viable was report­ed­ly made in 2012 to the Office of the Contractor General, OCG, by Managing Director of NROCC, Ivan Anderson.

Mr. Christie made his com­ment on Twitter today.

Former Transport and Works Minister, Dr. Omar Davies, is quot­ed in the online edi­tion of the Gleaner today as say­ing that pri­or to the deal being inked in 2012 it was the job of the Ministry of Finance to do the val­u­a­tion of lands being pro­vid­ed to Chinese developers.

In 2012, Dr. Peter Phillips was Finance Minister. He’s now President of the Opposition People’s National Party.

Dr. Davies is fur­ther quot­ed as say­ing there was some val­u­a­tion but he does not know if all the dif­fer­ent parcels of the land were valued.

In 2012, Davies signed off on the deal in his capac­i­ty as Transport and Works Minister.

Mr. Christie and Dr. Davies clashed in 2012 when Davies and the for­mer Simpson Miller admin­is­tra­tion took the OCG to court.

The court action had the effect of block­ing the OCG from mon­i­tor­ing the pre-con­trac­tu­al phase of the project.

However, in February 2013, the Supreme Court threw out the motion that was filed by Dr. Davies and the then government.

They were seek­ing leave to chal­lenge the pow­ers of the Contractor General before the Judicial Review Court.

The clash between Mr. Christie and Dr. Davies stemmed from the Minister’s deci­sion to estab­lish an Oversight Panel to over­see three major gov­ern­ment projects.

The Contractor General had accused the gov­ern­ment of try­ing to bypass his office and threat­ened to take legal action against mem­bers of the three-man pan­el if they refused to sup­ply him with reports on its activities.
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