ECF Airport belongs to the people of Guyana

Dear Editor,

Just for the public record, I do not have any conflict with Kit Nascimento, neither at a personal nor at a professional level.  

I therefore find his words quite sharp and riveting for a man who is supposedly just doing his professional work as a PR consultant for the Correia family.

I however, do Agree with Kit, Mike Correia is a is one of the ” Finest CEOs ” that is why I had personally agree to support his appointment as the chairman of the private company’s OAI board. It is important to note that the EFC Airport Board of directors was never established.

What is unfortunate is that I also thought I could have  trusted him to run the affairs of our company OAI while I was busy  over the years struggling to build and transform Roraima Airways which was a newly startup Company.

I in fact was too trusting of him which I now know  was  a massive mistake

When I finally discovered and understand what Mike was doing it was too late. He had already outsmarted us by cleverly maneuvering his family and friends into the shareholding of our company , OAI  , with the clear objective of taking over our company and cleverly dominating the day to day operations of the airport , thereby creating the most unhealthy and acrimoniously anti-competitive environment I have ever witness in my 40 years as a professional aviator.

I wish to acknowledge that I was not as smart  as mike Correia nor was I as alert as I should have been. He is probable a  better business man than I am , since I lack the basic killer instinct to be shrewd and ruthless.

Kit went on to cast assertions that  my own achievements was accomplished by political patronage while the development of ogle was clear of such political favors.  Well, I would not even dignify kit Nascimento’s slanderous assertions with a reply but only to say the following

1. Once again it leaves me to question his professional conduct.

2. I wish to make it very clear that kit Nassimento was not around the five original investors at the time we were conceptualizing the development strategy for OAI. He therefore is in no position to comment on the lack of”political Patronage” as a contribution to the development of ogle airport.

3. I do not expect him  to know the details and the behind the Scenes work that was done.

4. I do not expect him to know that the five of us was given the exclusive  privilege of leasing the ogle airport , not because of the Correia’s family Wealth , but because of the diversity of who each of us was individually and what we represented as competitors giving the Government the comfort  and assurance that the airport would be operated in a fair and equitable manner, where all of us would have equal say maintaining the balance since we were also fierce competitors.

5. Unfortunately what has evolved and what in fact is obtained today is far removed from the what the expectation was when the airport was leased to us.

6. The European Union tax Government injected 2 million USD in the airport development not for the benefit of one Operator but because they too felt it was for the benefit of Guyana.

As I close this letter, which I hope is the final letter I would need to write on this subject , let me simply established the following facts.

1. EFC Airport is a Government of Guyana facility which is leased to a private company called OAI with strict expectations on the part of Government.

2. OAI was meant to operate the airport in a fair and equitable manner by appointing a management team that was professionally competent and  very importantly  , totally impartial.

3. The fact that 9 of the 10 local aircraft operators at the airport has expressed unequivocally their lack of confidence in the management of the airport to be fair and impartial speaks for it self.

4. Airports  by their very nature are regulatory, therefore, It a totally unacceptable situation to have one competitor regulating his competitors.

The business of a country’s international airport is not like any regular company , airports must be managed by impartial managers. The quantum of Shareholding should never give one operator more rights over the other operators who are their competitors.

Aviation related Investors must be assured of the security of their investment but they cannot be allow to run the day to day operations of the airport because of the clear conflict of interest and disadvantage to the other airport  aviation operators.

OAI as a private company that no longer has the moral standing of impartiality to continue with the privilege of managing a public asset  (EFC International Airport) in the public interest in an equitable  and fair manner. ECF Airport belongs to the people of Guyana and we must never forget that fact. Our Government need to establish a national airport authority under which the management of our country’s international airports must operate.

Sincerely,

Captain Gerry Gouveia

CEO, Roraima

Airways