St. Kitts and Nevis Labour Party MP Konris Maynard says the government was attempting to save face by opening the new second cruise pier Monday, as the facility still cannot accommodate the larger Oasis class cruise ships it was built for.
Minister Responsible for Port Authority and Infrastructure Ian Patches Liburd informed the nation during a recent sitting of the national assembly that there was an issue with respect to the depth of the berth that prevented the bigger ships from being able to dock there and that further work had to be done to remedy the situation. Then on Monday, four ships docked at Port Zante, however the two smaller vessels docked at the new pier.
MP Maynard accused the government of attempting to fool the populace that all was well with the new pier.
“The justification for not going with the plans that were there from the Labour Party was that the new pier would only be able to accommodate one Oasis-class cruise ship and they did the re-design and increased the figures dramatically so they could accommodate 2 Oasis-class cruise ships. We made the argument then that it’s going to be very unlikely in any event that you are going to have 3 or 4 Oasis- class ships in St. Kitts and the same time. The Member for #1 himself came in here – it ain’ nobody say so-he said that subsequent to the building of the pier they have identified a bedrock that prevents the safe docking of the extra large ships and that something else has to happen, extra monies have to be expended – they’re in arbitration to find out who must pay it.
“And so I don’t doubt that some time in the future that someone will figure out a way of how to get rid of the bedrock so that so that the Oasis-class can dock, but in a manner of deception as always this week Sunday night…all sorts of workers down there working feverishly to bring in two smaller ships at the pier to say that somehow the pier is now working.
“That’s a height of deception and incompetence. You promised a pier in September, you cannot produce it because of whatever incompetence transpired. So yes you have a pier down there that you can dock smaller ships…but that is not what it was built for. We didn’t expend extra money that could have been put in the hospital, education, healthcare. We didn’t spend that extra money to dock the same ships that could dock at the other port; that could make sense?”
Since Monday’s opening of the pier another smaller cruise ship has since docked at the facility.
Maynard called on the government to be upfront with the citizenry instead of operating in secrecy and spreading misinformation.