The National Infrastructure Development Company Ltd (Nidco) is in a financial crisis and could be out of money by the end of this month. The company had also accumulated $49.7 million in losses as at the end of March this year and owes some $475 million to contractors.
This was revealed by Nidco’s deputy chairman Stephen Gardiner before the Public Accounts and Enterprise Committee (PAEC) of the Parliament yesterday. However, Gardiner quickly noted that the company has an emergency plan to salvage its finances and to take the company to the end of year.
Despite this claim, committee chairman, Opposition Senator Wade Mark, chastised Nidco’s representatives, saying the JSC was now hearing of such a plan, noting the company had submitted a document which instead said it would be out of money by the end of June. Gardiner then admitted that was an error on Nidco’s part.
Works and Transport Minister and committee member Fitzgerald Hinds, also the line minister for Nidco, seemed unimpressed.
Telling representatives they would find “no friend” in him, Hinds said transparency and accountability must be top priority for Nidco. He then asked what were the actual cost cutting measures the company had implemented thus far to keep itself afloat.
President Steve Garibsingh said the company reduced its vehicles from 25 to 15. He added that offices in Fyzabad, Port-of-Spain and Tobago, which accrued close to $100,000 in rent a month, were also closed as a way to cut cost.
On whether staff cuts would take place, Gardiner said that was an issue to be addressed but did not want to comment publicly as it would cause fear among the staff. He said total employee cost represents 62 per cent of the operating cost. Strict monitoring of performance of projects was also being done, since Nidco had previously made the mistake of ramping up its manpower without getting guarantees that the projects would in fact be carried out, Gardiner said.
OAS not terminated
On the controversial San Fernando to Point Fortin Highway, the committee heard that Brazilian firm OAS Construtora was not officially terminated. Asked why no further work has been done, Gardiner said OAS was supposed to restart on the project in January this year but that was not the case as it appears the company had severe internal problems which stemmed from abroad.
But Gardiner said negotiations on a way forward were taking place and had reached a critical stage. The committee heard that to date OAS had completed 61 per cent of the work. The overall contract was estimated at 5.2 billion of which 3.7 billion was already paid to OAS.
On land acquisition for the project, Gardiner said the total budget was $700 million but only $517 million was paid thus far to acquire land for the massive highway project.
Hinds noted that some $25 million in rent was paid by Nidco for squatters and legitimate land owners during the construction of the highway, adding that the company still faced some similar demands from landowners.