About K116mil needed for work on 5 terminals: Kiponge

ABOUT K116 million will be needed for work on five terminals around the country, National Airports Corporation (NAC) acting managing director and chief executive officer Rex Kiponge says.
Kiponge said the terminals were Kavieng (New Ireland), Madang, Wapenamanda (Enga), Tari (Hela) and Mendi (Southern Highlands).
He said he had written to Treasury, Finance and National Planning departments regarding the civil aviation development investment programme (Cadip) 2 financing gap upon expiry of Cadip 1 as of last Wednesday.
“The multi-financing facility (MFF) of Cadip 1 expired on Wednesday,” he said.
“Despite efforts by the Treasurer (Ian Ling-Stuckey) to seek extension of the MFF closing date by another year given the national elections next year, Asian Development Bank (ADB) has refused to extend the loan closing date to the end of Dec 2022.
“There is, therefore, an anticipated financing gap from the time that the MFF expires until the Cadip 2 concessional loan is approved and declared effective by ADB.
“Our Cadip project implementation unit has undertaken an extensive review of all contractors’ construction schedules delving into their planned deliverables versus their actual outputs over the duration of their contracts.
“From this, the financing gap to complete the works after the deadline was determined hence the anticipated financing gap needs to be filled with direct national government funding through the 2022 development budget.”
Kiponge said these were estimates and did not take into account other factors such as any changes in scope or impact of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) after the deadline lapses.
“The ADB component for all projects that will not have been disbursed would be about K33 million, which can be picked up under Cadip 2 once the concessional loan financing is approved anytime next year,” he said.
He said this was in line with all the stakeholders’ interests to ensure projects were completed and ensured seamless financial closure after the deadline.