Spotts dock work on hold

A proposal to carry out $3 million worth of work at Spotts jetty by the Chinese company in talks with the government to enhance cruise facilities in Cayman has been put on hold until the entire deal is finalised, Premier McKeeva Bush said Wednesday.

Mr. Bush said complaints about the Spotts aspect of the arrangement, which was due to begin in July, led him to put off arranging for work at Spotts to begin until a definitive contract is signed with China Harbour Engineering Company.

Responding to a parliamentary question from the Leader of the Opposition Alden McLaughlin in the Legislative Assembly, Mr. Bush said it was vital to improve facilities at Spotts, at which cruise ships offload passengers when inclement weather prevents them from doing so in George Town. Mr. Bush said facilities and conditions at that dock are “atrocious”.

According to the memorandum of agreement signed between the government and China Harbour Enterprise Company earlier this year, the signatories aim to sign a definitive contract by the end of November for a project to design, build and operate cruise ship docking and related facilities in George Town; to renovate and expand the Spotts Jetty; and to develop a cruise ship pier at the Cayman Turtle Farm in West Bay.

Under that memorandum of understanding, China Harbour agreed to commit up to $3 million to begin work on Spotts Jetty prior to beginning the other two projects or even signing the final agreement.
Mr. Bush told legislators that if the definitive agreement was not signed, the government would pay China Harbour back the money, up to $3 million, that they would have spent at Spotts.

“They did not give the government any money. No money went into government funds or government accounts. It was an agreement that I tried to get some work started in this country,” he said.

However, Mr. Bush said that following complaints from the Opposition and other opponents, as well as questions from the audit office about the whereabouts of the $3 million mentioned in the agreement, he had decided to put the Spotts part of the project on hold until the definitive agreement was signed.

“They asked where the $3 million was, like somebody had put $3 million into an account and somebody had taken it. That is what all the furore was all about,” the premier said. “I told the governor, ‘look, I am sick and tired of this, I ain’t going to move this forward, I will tell the Chinese… don’t move forward with this until a definitive agreement is started.’”