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Henry, Pickersgill joust over Transport Centre shops
BY INGRID BROWN Observer senior reporter browni@jamaicaobserver.com
Monday, July 21, 2008
Commercial shops inside the Half-Way-Tree Transport Centre in Kingston are not yet operational nearly eight months after the centre was opened for business and the Government's declaration that the revenues from these businesses would be needed to offset the cost of operating the facility.
Shortly after taking office last year, Transport Minister Mike Henry said the shops would have to be leased to provide revenue towards the operation of the centre, which was projected at $100 million annually.
Students walk by the barber salon inside the Half-Way-Tree Transport Centre in this file photo.
However, Opposition spokesman on transport, Robert Pickersgill, said last week that the tender process employed under the previous administration for the awarding of the shops has been abandoned, a claim which was rejected by Henry.
Pickersgill told the Observer that he has been informed that the tender process was abandoned, even though it was at an advanced stage when his Government left office.
"I don't want to go any further to prejudice the investigations of the Office of the Contractor General, but I have been told that it has been abandoned," Pickersgill said.
However, Henry, who told the Observer that he would not respond to any allegations made by Pickersgill, would only confirm that some shops have already been leased, but not yet opened.
He referred the Observer to the Port Authority of Jamaica (PAJ), the organisation responsible for leasing the shops.
"I wouldn't know if they all have been leased because the Port Authority handles all of that," Henry said, adding that workmen were currently at the transport centre preparing some of the shops to the lessees' specifications.
However, checks with the PAJ did not reveal much as communication head, Pat Bellinfanti, told the Observer last week that he would need to research the matter further to determine how many shops have since been leased and what was the tender process.
He said from information he had received earlier, it is believed that documentation has already been completed for about 12 or 13 shops and that lessees are currently outfitting the shops. He said it should be known by the end of this month what is the situation with the other shops. He, however, promised to supply further information at a later date.
Outside of a barbar salon, a phone outlet and a deli kiosk which were opened for business shortly after the official opening of the centre, all the other shops in the centre were closed when the Observer visited last week.
Meanwhile, Pickersgill, who addressed journalists at a post-sectoral debate press conference last week in Kingston, demanded some answers as to how the contracts were awarded and to whom.
"Let us hear who they gave the things to and how it was done," he said.
"Since they are so clean and angelic and everybody is so corrupt, let us wait and see because I know as a minister I never had any concession in any government-owned place... never owned a taxi or a bus," said Pickersgill.
He said when he left office there was a multiplicity of applications received, however he does not know what has since happened.
According to Pickersgill, it is expected that shops at the Transport Centre, like those at the two international airports, were well sought after because of the large number of persons who travel through these venues each day.
"Especially in a place like the transport centre, as minister you have to be careful because the spaces would be sought after like at the two international airports and you must be above the fray," said Pickersgill.
Reginald Allen, communications manager at the Ministry of Transport and Works, said in an interview earlier this year that there is a projected $75 million gap between what is projected to be earned and what is intended to maintain the facility.
The centre, which opened in January, was built as a joint project between Jamaica and Belgium at a cost of $4.9 billion, 80 per cent of which was in the form of an interest-free loan with the other 20 per cent repayable at 4.0 per cent per annum.
The centre can handle 580 buses per hour and some 200,000 commuters are expected to use it daily.
Earnings are projected to come from food court concessions, rental of the 17 commercial shops and six commercial kiosks, and lease to the Jamaica Urban Transit Company.
BY INGRID BROWN Observer senior reporter browni@jamaicaobserver.com
Monday, July 21, 2008
Commercial shops inside the Half-Way-Tree Transport Centre in Kingston are not yet operational nearly eight months after the centre was opened for business and the Government's declaration that the revenues from these businesses would be needed to offset the cost of operating the facility.
Shortly after taking office last year, Transport Minister Mike Henry said the shops would have to be leased to provide revenue towards the operation of the centre, which was projected at $100 million annually.
Students walk by the barber salon inside the Half-Way-Tree Transport Centre in this file photo. However, Opposition spokesman on transport, Robert Pickersgill, said last week that the tender process employed under the previous administration for the awarding of the shops has been abandoned, a claim which was rejected by Henry.
Pickersgill told the Observer that he has been informed that the tender process was abandoned, even though it was at an advanced stage when his Government left office.
"I don't want to go any further to prejudice the investigations of the Office of the Contractor General, but I have been told that it has been abandoned," Pickersgill said.
However, Henry, who told the Observer that he would not respond to any allegations made by Pickersgill, would only confirm that some shops have already been leased, but not yet opened.
He referred the Observer to the Port Authority of Jamaica (PAJ), the organisation responsible for leasing the shops.
"I wouldn't know if they all have been leased because the Port Authority handles all of that," Henry said, adding that workmen were currently at the transport centre preparing some of the shops to the lessees' specifications.
However, checks with the PAJ did not reveal much as communication head, Pat Bellinfanti, told the Observer last week that he would need to research the matter further to determine how many shops have since been leased and what was the tender process.
He said from information he had received earlier, it is believed that documentation has already been completed for about 12 or 13 shops and that lessees are currently outfitting the shops. He said it should be known by the end of this month what is the situation with the other shops. He, however, promised to supply further information at a later date.
Outside of a barbar salon, a phone outlet and a deli kiosk which were opened for business shortly after the official opening of the centre, all the other shops in the centre were closed when the Observer visited last week.
Meanwhile, Pickersgill, who addressed journalists at a post-sectoral debate press conference last week in Kingston, demanded some answers as to how the contracts were awarded and to whom.
"Let us hear who they gave the things to and how it was done," he said.
"Since they are so clean and angelic and everybody is so corrupt, let us wait and see because I know as a minister I never had any concession in any government-owned place... never owned a taxi or a bus," said Pickersgill.
He said when he left office there was a multiplicity of applications received, however he does not know what has since happened.
According to Pickersgill, it is expected that shops at the Transport Centre, like those at the two international airports, were well sought after because of the large number of persons who travel through these venues each day.
"Especially in a place like the transport centre, as minister you have to be careful because the spaces would be sought after like at the two international airports and you must be above the fray," said Pickersgill.
Reginald Allen, communications manager at the Ministry of Transport and Works, said in an interview earlier this year that there is a projected $75 million gap between what is projected to be earned and what is intended to maintain the facility.
The centre, which opened in January, was built as a joint project between Jamaica and Belgium at a cost of $4.9 billion, 80 per cent of which was in the form of an interest-free loan with the other 20 per cent repayable at 4.0 per cent per annum.
The centre can handle 580 buses per hour and some 200,000 commuters are expected to use it daily.
Earnings are projected to come from food court concessions, rental of the 17 commercial shops and six commercial kiosks, and lease to the Jamaica Urban Transit Company.