GMR has done only peripheral work at airport, says Maldives official

Masood Imad, the media Secretary to the President’s Office in Maldives, has been quite blunt about alleged wrongdoings by GMR Infrastructure in bagging the Male International Airport development project and subsequently operating the airport.

GMR, the largest foreign investor in Maldives, was evicted from the airport earlier this month and has now claimed $800 million in damages.

But Maldives continues to allege that GMR did little to develop the airport and has also been disputing the $800 million compensation being sought.

Imad’s e-mail interview withFirstpost on GMR and plans for Male International Airport’s development after GMR’s eviction:

-Have you appointed an international audit firm to conduct a forensic audit of GMR’s books, its investments and claims of $800 million in compensation for being evicted from the airport project?

Appointing an auditor is easier said than done. Even as we speak there are talks going on on the modality and procedures to be followed. We are hoping for a minimal loss to all parties concerned.

The government has at no point made any references to any figures regarding the compensation issue. We would like to wait for the arbitration process to complete.

-Why do you want a forensic audit and how much, according to you, is the compensation amount GMR should claim?

A forensic audit was contemplated as an acceptable way to determine the actual financials involved in the project that could be acceptable to both parties and also to in a court of law. I told you earlier too, we don’t raise our hands and pluck number from the air. We will wait and let the professionals do the job. I am sure it will be acceptable to all parties.

-Has the Maldives Government decided on how to continue the development of the airport now? Will the Government be adopting a public-private partnership model again and asking any other private developer to bring expertise and funds for the airport?

The Government is very clear on how it should proceed with the development of the airport. I wouldn’t call the earlier modal a public-private partnership. It was an airport, all its assets and business advantage sold for just 1% (one percent) of the revenue also later to be collected as ADC to be deducted from the concession fees. A situation that left one party bleeding while the other went about business with smiles and bags. That is why the agreement was terminated.

For the moment, we have to take stock of ourselves and get to a point where we can look beyond the GMR experience. We have some experiences, pretty good experiences, in setting up successful public-private partnerships. The Government will look into all options and decide on the course of action.

 -How much development work of the airport is left and what kind of money is needed now to complete work?

How much development work is left? I wish you asked me how much was done. As far as I am concerned only peripheral work attended to.

No major works undertaken. I seriously don’t want to go into speculating on figures and numbers. If an expert places the figure for the development of that airport at 300 million, then I believe it still requires just that much.