"Local firms to get preference on Nassau airport renovations"

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Local firms to get preference on airport renovations
By N. Thomas-Brown
Bahamas - The Nassau Guardian


Craig Richmond, CEO and President of the National Airport Development
Company [NAD], told The Nassau Guardian recently that they (NAD) had not
begun to issue contracts for the renovations of the airport, but that
Bahamian firms would get first preference in bidding as soon as government
approves the completed design. 

For now, the company has merely come up with a basic design for the building
and was not issuing any contracts for the new terminal, according to
Richmond. "We haven't even gotten approval to receive this new terminal so
the new terminal right now is purely in the design stage," he said. 

The government is soon expected to bring the design to Cabinet for approval.
As soon as approval is granted, Richmond said that Bahamians would be
invited to participate in any tenders for financing or capital works. 

At a recent town meeting, where concerned Bahamians expressed fears about
being underutilized in previous projects undertaken by foreigners, Richmond
explained that his company would have a very open and transparent policy. 

"When we go out for any contract we have a purchasing policy we follow to
the letter and people who bid on these contracts can be assured that we are
looking at best value for NADS". 

He further explained that the policies were approved by the board. 

"We go out and we follow them to the letter, " he said. "If we have five
companies to choose from, we get all the information and a committee of
various individuals will go through it and they independently do the
assessment. Then all those numbers go into the mix and then they say who won
the bid. It's all about best value, not necessarily about lowest price". 

Meanwhile Richmond said that earlier on when NAD was doing their washroom
upgrades many firms were interested but very few had bid. "When we spoke to
the bidders we realized that they were quite worried about the level of
details we had in our "P" forms. So we are just adjusting those to make sure
we have the widest possible participation because we don't want to wall off
certain contractors because they are not used to dealing with a paper
process like that," he said. 

"We are very detailed in our request for proposals and people are not used
to it and so we are going to have to change our process to make it more
accessible to local businesses." 

Richmond also promised that due to the size of the project [ 585,000 sq.
feet] there would be more than enough work for various contractors. 

However, he said that In terms of architects the preference would be to deal
with one firm. 

"This will only pertain to the architectural side. As far as contractors go
there will be all types of work. I have a basic estimate that at the peak of
this project we'd have between 400-500 people," he said. 

Richmond added that there were no major challenges to the project right now
and expected to complete the opening of the first terminal as planned in
March 2010. 

The new facility will cost close to 400 million dollars, according to
Richmond. On its completion in 2012 it is projected that it will be one of
the largest single infrastructural project ever undertaken by the Government
of The Bahamas. 

Plans to transform the Lynden Pindling International Airport into a
new-state-of-the-art, 21st century traveling facility were unveiled this
year by Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham. The vast developments are expected
to position The Bahamas to vigorously compete with other tourism
destinations, according to the Prime Minister. 

NAD is a corporation owned by the government which has a 30-year lease to
operate, maintain and develop the Lynden Pindling International Airport.
Vancouver Airport Services out of Canada owned by Richmond, has a 10-year
management contract to run NAD.

 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/dcfp/dcboard.php


*****************************************