Airport redevelopment project will cost more and be delivered later than originally estimated

The report “Owen Roberts International Airport (ORIA) Terminal Redevelopment project: Progress update,” issued by the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) today assesses progress made with the ORIA Terminal Redevelopment project as at 30 August 2018.

“The ORIA Redevelopment project is of significant importance for the Cayman Islands economy as we see both the population and the numbers of tourists grow year on year.” Ms. Winspear notes. “However, as with any major capital project it is essential that it is well managed to ensure value for money.” The report was originally issued to the Public Accounts Committee of the Legislative Assembly on 30 August 2018 as a private report as it contained some commercially sensitive information that the Auditor General considered would not be in the public interest to release at that time.

“I prepared this report in August 2018 and issued it only to key stakeholders and the Public Accounts Committee at that time because it was a “live” project and contained information that I considered to be commercially sensitive. I felt that by publishing it at that time, risked increasing the costs of the project to the public purse,” Ms. Winspear explains. “The project is still not complete and risks from publishing the report remain but I judge that these are sufficiently diminished that the public interest is best served by publishing this now with a small number of redactions remaining in place at this point.”

The report highlights that estimates as at August 2018 indicated that the project was likely to cost around $64.37 million, almost 20 per cent more than contract prices and would not be complete until February 2019. The Auditor General adds. “At the time of my report in August 2018, the project was estimated to cost over $64 million, around $10.5 million or 20 per cent more than contract prices.

Almost $5 million of these cost increases are as a result of additions in scope made to the project after contracts were signed, including hurricane rated glass and canopies. Making changes to the scope of a project after a contract has been signed is not good practice.” The report states that governance and oversight of the project has improved over time but there have been challenges in managing the project. Project management has been hampered by the performance of the lead consultant.