By: Erasmus Williams
Basseterre, St. Kitts, December 6, 2017 – West Basseterre MP, Hon. Konris Maynard is questioning the new price tag of the new cruise pier in St. Kitts.
When the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) left office in 2016, the second cruise ship would have cost just US$32 million to build.
It now has a price tag of US$48 million – US$16 million more – and the Federation’s youngest Member of Parliament is raising questions of the probability of corruption.
At Tuesday’s press conference of the SKNLP, Maynard raised the injection of a whopping US$34 million by the National Bank and the absence of tourism-related businesses among the other local entities financing the project.
Other local financiers are the St. Kitts and Nevis Social Security Board, US$7 million, the St. Kitts and Nevis Sugar Industry Diversification Foundation (SIDF), US$5 million and the St. Kitts and Nevis Trading and Development Company (TDC), US$2 million.
Maynard noted that under the leadership of then Minister of Tourism, Sen. the Hon. Richard Skerritt and the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party administration, the tourism plant underwent a complete transformation to be a leader in the region.
“It is well known in the cruise industry schedules vessels for three to five years and as a result of the sterling work of the former Labour Administration, and being aware of the upcoming cruise schedule over the next five years, the Government of the day set about to construct a second pier.
“All was ready to go at a cost of US$32 million when the government changed. Today, the pier is now three years delayed, jeopardizing the expected increase of cruise arrivals that the Labour Government had prepared. Worst than that, the cost has unexplainably ballooned to US$48 million,” the West Basseterre MP told reporters and the Nation.
“It has now become clear that this delay and the 50% increase in cost, is firstly due to the unprecedented level of corruption surrounding the construction of the Pier,” said Maynard, a First Class Honours graduate with a BSc degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of the West Indies.
“We are told that Ministers of Government have been setting up cement and other companies first overtly but now covertly to directly benefit,” said Maynard who also holds a MEng Electrical and Computer Degree from Waterloo Unversity in Canada.
“There is also the suspicious situation where only one private sector company is part of the financing of the pier. It just so happens that an employee of that company is the Chairman of the major stakeholder (St. Christopher Air and Sea Ports Authority) who will be managing the pier. The question is, were other competing private sector businesses given a chance to provide financing to this project? Were other tourism-related type businesses given an opportunity provide financing for this project? The public wants to know! It is even more critical now that our National Bank will be financing over 70% of this project to the tune of a whopping EC$92.3 million dollars. It is then imperative for us to have utmost vigilance,” said Maynard.
Photo – Hon. Konris Maynard
Photo – St. Kitts’ Port Zante
