Saint Lucia Air and Seaports Authority (SLASPA) General Manager, Daren Cenac, announced in a press conference on Thursday that the Authority has terminated its contract with OECC Ltd.
Overseas Engineering and Construction Company (OECC) is a Taiwanese construction firm which was engaged by SLASPA to undertake works for the rehabilitation of the Hewanorra International Airport.
Cenac disclosed that due to the contractor’s health and safety violations, SLASPA could not continue with the contract as planned.
“During the ongoing construction of our new Air Traffic Control Tower, the main contractor, OECC, breached multiple performance, health and safety requirements. Despite efforts to address these issues, OECC failed to comply and therefore, this prompted the termination of the contract on November 30th, 2024,” explained Cenac.
He disclosed that SLASPA followed the terms of its contract with the contractor and does not expect to incur any costs as a result of the termination.
“We have a contract agreement which is very clear as to how you proceed. So we have followed this very, very carefully in terms of the contract agreement. And if the contractor does not agree with our position, there are different avenues in that contract agreement where the parties can resolve the matters. So we have not received an official response from the contractor, but we don’t anticipate that there will be any costs,” he said.
Cenac outlined that SLASPA intends to release a tender for the completion of the tower in January of the incoming year so that the project may resume within the first quarter of 2025.
