Gov't withdraws support for new international airport

The Vanuatu Government made it clear in Parliament Thursday that it will not support plans for construction of the new international airport for the country.

The Government’s announcement in the House to no longer support the building of the new international follows recommendations from the Ad Hoc Parliamentary Committee into the issue, contained in the Committee’s Report. The Report was tabled by the Chairman of the Committee Robert Bohn and was discussed by the House Thursday morning.

Even though no concrete work on the new airport has started, Parliament heard yesterday that the company that a concession agreement was signed with for a new airport has billed the government Vt3 billion already.

One year ago, on the eve of the 33rd Independence Anniversary, on July 27, 2013 then Prime Minister, Moana Carcasses, signed a concessional agreement valued at around Vt35 billion with a Singapore-based company, Vanuatu Trade Development Limited (VTDL), to build a new green field international airport for Vanuatu. The project’s reported primary aim was to boost the country’s economy from increased tourist inflow through direct flights from Asia.

Right from the start when news of the signing of the agreement broke, the public began to ask questions about its genuineness with many continuing to this day to believe it to be a “scam”.

Without even a prior knowledge of the public, government had formed a taskforce comprised of many of the top experts in the civil service including directors and director generals to advise it on the agreement and its aims.

However, the government by-passed its own specialists in the field of aviation found in Airports Vanuatu Limited (AVL) when it formed the taskforce and this led to suspicions in the public’s mind.

When senior officials in AVL expressed concerns about the contents of the agreement they were cautioned and three of the top senior people in the quasi-government were eventually terminated from their position by the new AVL Board appointed to push ahead with the government’s plan.

Many in the know who read the contents of the agreement questioned its genuineness because it was clear that the people of Vanuatu would still pay a huge amount to VTDL if the country withdrew from the agreement.

Additionally, one year after the signing, full scale work on Bauerfield Airport which badly requires serious upgrading, has not been done even though this is covered in the agreement.

The public concerns increased when the government announced that the country would need to provide a promissory note to be approved by the Parliament to VTDL to build the company.

Many sections of the community did not accept government “assurance” that the promissory note was nothing more than a pledge from Vanuatu that it would not break the agreement and that the company would be compensated for work done under the agreement.

All these public concerns forced Parliament to form an Ad Hoc Committee to carry out its investigation into the concession agreement and to report its finding to the House. This report has now been tabled in Parliament and led to heated debate in the House Thursday morning.

Former Prime Minister Moana Carcasses, now Leader of the Opposition, passing the buck and defended his position when he told Parliament he received advice from technical people in the taskforce to sign the agreement. Carcasses’ deputy at the time and now Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, Edrward Natapei, seemed to read the public’s mind when he said that he did not benefit from his backing for the agreement and that his position entirely for the interest of the country.

MP for Port Vila Willie Jimmy referred to the Appeal Case 43 of 2014 in which the Opposition took the case of the planned promissory note for VTDL to the courts. The court had ruled that the Prime Minister, nor his deputy and not even the taskforce had the right to grant approval for such an agreement with VTDL - only the Council of Ministers, whose approval had clearly not been sought before Carcasses signed the agreement.

Jimmy asked how the idea for the new airport got to where it was signed in the first place, with many fingers now seemed to be pointing at the taskforce.

MP for Pentecost Tony Nari pointed to concerns raised on occasions in the past about such issues and asked if it was even right for the people of Vanuatu to pay for any such blunder which could cost them millions of vatu now that Vanuatu is opting out of the agreement.

Prime Minister Natuman urged the House to carefully study the report and said the country could not now go back because he understood there was already a claim from the other party (VTDL) for Vt3-billion now if Vanuatu was backing away from the agreement.

“It is a delicate situation. Now everyone is not happy. But it is a positive thing that the Parliamentary Ad Hoc into the issue has produced its report now with Parliament for everyone to discuss. The priority now is for everyone to work together to see what’s good for the future,” Efate Rural MP Stephen Kalsakau said in his comments on the issue.

Every Member of Parliament who spoke expressed his gratitude to the Ad Hoc Committee for the report.