KINGSTON, Jamaica – Opposition Spokesman on Finance and Planning Audley Shaw, today called on the Minister of Transport and Works, Dr Omar Davies, to immediately provide the public further and better particulars on reasons that led to a failure to obtain a bid from an interested party to take over the operations of the Norman Manley International Airport (NMIA).

Read: No bidders for Norman Manley International Airport

Referring to a statement made earlier this week by the chairman of the NMIA divestment team, Shaw said the statement was cryptic and lacked fulsome information on the strange circumstances that led to the failure of the divestment team to receive any bids for such a valuable asset.

“What did it cost the enterprise team and the Development Bank of Jamaica to engage the services of the International Finance Corporation and was the IFC the appropriate vehicle to aggressively lead the divestment process of the NMIA?” Shaw asked in a release Thursday.  

He added that the divestment of the Donald Sangster Airport had led to a successful operation of that airport, as well as the granting of incentives for the successful operation of private lounges at the two international airports.

“In the absence of critical information the public is left with the impression that the divestment exercise was poorly managed and was at best a half-baked, half-hearted and reluctant attempt which resulted in an outcome of apparent disinterest,” Shaw maintained.

“For the divestment committee chairman to merely say that there was ‘a robust attempt at divestment’ is not good enough. The minister must enumerate all the costs and initiatives involved in this failed attempt at divestment and give the country the assurance that there are no reputational consequences to this apparent debacle,” Shaw insisted.