FORMER Prime Minister (PM), Samuel Hinds, is maintaining that a transmission tower removed from Plantation Sparendaam, East Coast Demerara in 2011, was done to allow for expansion of the then Ogle International Airport and talks of its removal began since 2004.
His comments were made on Wednesday after he was questioned by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) on matters related to the removal of the tower. SOCU is currently investigating the development of Pradoville and the issuing of parcels of land to selected individuals under the Peoples’ Progressive party (PPP) government.

It is believed that the transmission tower, which belongs to the state-owned National Communication Network (NCN), was removed by the then government to facilitate development of Pradoville which Ministers and top ranking officials would later benefit from.
Hinds during that time was Prime Minister and held responsibility for the aviation sector. In his response to SOCU on Wednesday, the former PM said that the tower was removed to facilitate development of the Ogle International Airport [now Eugene F. Correia International Airport]. The tower is now located at La Parfaite /Harmonie on the West Bank of Demerara (WBD).

“Questions came up in relation to the transmission tower at Sparendaam,” he said, adding that there were documentations, one of them addressed to him in 2004, where formal discussions began for the removal of the tower.
Hinds explained that the PPP government, which ascended to executive office in 1992, was also challenged by the Correia’s who opened a hangar at the then Ogle Airport. He said the Correia’s would say that the government was not doing enough for the private aircraft industry.

Coming out of this, he said, were considerations by the PPP government to develop Ogle Airport into a municipal and regional airport, and for this to happen, he noted that the tower had to be removed.
However, forensic audit reports into the operations of government holding company – the National Industrial and Commercial Investment Limited (NICIL) – indicate that, “the removal and relocation of the NCN transmission tower were done to facilitate the housing development of the area [Sparendaam].”

The report pointed out that state funds amounting to $257M were expended on the development of the Sparendaam housing project (Pradoville). NCN was required to pay for the removal of the tower. In 2015 though, head of NICIL under PPP, Winston Brassington, explained that the tower needed to be removed for the government to access European Union (EU) funding for the expansion of the airport.

However, no mention of this was made by former PM Hinds on Wednesday. In the financial report, NICIL maintained that the relocation was done for expansion of the airport, but added that NCN had even made representation for the relocation of the tower for improved transmission.

The Auditor, Anand Goolsaran, pointed out in his report though that with regard to the tower being in the flight path of aircraft operating out of Ogle Airport, there was no reference to this in any of NICIL’s board minutes or in any of the Cabinet’s decisions in relation to the Sparendaam Project.
Further, the report stated that, “It is also not clear to whom NCN made representation for the relocation of the tower since the established procedure is for NCN to request funding via the National Budget to undertake any capital works.”