The Ministry of Transport and Aviation has spent $2.1 million so far on the first two phases of the redevelopment of Potter's Cay Dock - within budget, with the third phase set to cost about $1 million, according to Transport and Aviation Minister Glenys Hanna-Martin.

Hanna-Martin spoke with Guardian Business against the backdrop of confusion caused by the conflation of two separate projects: one by her ministry, and the other by the Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources (MAMR).

Jaws dropped last week when Agriculture Minister V. Alfred Gray let slip that a project he initially said would cost a maximum of $2.5 million now has a $9 million price tag, which some observers have said "makes no sense".

Hanna-Martin's project, however, has nothing to do with Gray's. In fact, while Hanna-Martin asserts that the Transport and Aviation project has gone through its first two phases on time and on budget, the MAMR project - the redevelopment of the stalls for vendors and attendant works - has yet to begin.
Hanna-Martin explained.

"My ministry's redevelopment program is $3.1 million. It is three phases. Currently, phases one and two are going on on a simultaneous basis, and they should be finished very shortly. Phase three is the renovation to the fish and farm store. They have moved out and that will become a freight depot. Also, there will be constructed a holding area for passengers, with bathrooms.

"The full project is $3.1 million. We've not done the full project yet. We've done phases one and two, which is $2.1 million," she said.

Hanna-Martin explained that she had been advised that the cost for the third phase - the freight depot/terminal - has only been estimated, and that no contracts have as yet been executed with respect to that phase.

"What we've spent thus far is $2.1 million, and it is for the two contractors for phases one and two - the boardwalk, the landscaping, the paving and all the stuff you see happening out there... And we are within budget for phase one and two," she said.

"We expect to begin phase three, I am advised, by the end of the year. We will seek to keep constrained within the budget, because a building is there already, it's just a matter of reconfiguring it for freight," the minister added.

K. Quincy Parker, Guardian Business Editor

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