Monday’s Parliament meeting about the decision to “go with the Dutch government and European Investment Bank (EIB) financing proposal to the tune of US $100 million for the reconstruction of St. Maarten’s Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA)” was adjourned after the first round of debate to afford Prime Minister Leona Romeo-Marlin the necessary space to answer questions posed.
She had started off with a presentation on the process to opt for the half grant/half soft loan with favourable terms. However, opposition members did not seem convinced, especially about allowing the Netherlands a temporary member each on the management and supervisory boards of the government-owned company, combined with involvement of Dutch airport Schiphol.
But, as St. Maarten Christian Party (SMPC) Member of Parliament Claude “Chacho” Peterson pointed out in his intervention, no viable alternative was presented. He alluded to former Prime Minister William Marlin’s talk of a “Plan B” that failed to materialise when he called conditions set by the Netherlands for 550 million euros in reconstruction assistance following Hurricane Irma unacceptable.
It was announced in Monday’s edition that the current prime minister and Finance Minister Perry Geerlings had also arranged a bridge loan of $15 million in The Hague for PJIA to keep going, with an emergency advance of $5 million to be provided for urgent expenses. The release concluded that support for the grant/loan was given “after learning that a more favourable deal was hard to come by and on receiving information from the airport that no other financing would become available through Piper Jaffray or other sources any time soon.”
Nevertheless, while the choice now made may have been the only realistic one, people are left to wonder about certain details. For example, how is it possible that an airport terminal built for under $100 million and still standing will cost much more to repair?
After all, in addition to the now-discussed $100 million from EIB and the Dutch-sponsored Trust Fund managed by the World Bank, NAGICO paid PJIA $58.2 million in total on its insurance claims as ordered by the judge, of which $9.5 million for loss of profit. This translates to a combined amount of approximately $148.7 million to fix the damage.
If there is a simple explanation it would be good to provide such so the general public can at least get some help doing the math.
