Chairman of the Port Authority, Allison Lewis, has apologised to the people of Tobago for what the current “untenable situation,” regarding the inter-island ferry service. Its an issue which she feels strong about and one which may just put her to “step aside.”
Lewis told the T&T Guardian: “I feel for the people of Tobago and this morning I apologised to the Chief Secretary and the people of Tobago for the situation.”
It’s a situation, she said, she is not prepared to tolerate “and if I am not in a position to do anything I will have to step aside and let somebody else do it.”
Since assuming office on April 11, Lewis and the Board of the Port Authority have been grappling with fixing problems on the inter-island route. Two weeks after she took the helm the Galicia left the inter-island cargo service after the government refused to agree to a three year contract for the vessel which had been serving the needs of Tobago since 2014.
The void left by the departure of the Galicia has been filled over the past few weeks by the Atlantic Provider a cargo vessel which carries forty trucks compared to the Galicia’s 100 and the barge the Trinity Provider, which has been transporting hardware and construction material to the island. But truckers have complained that when their trucks go on the barge they leave covered in salt and sea water.
In the ensuing time Tobago’s food and hardware supplies have been running low and truckers have had to protest the conditions under which they were operating, where their trucks have to go on to the Provider or the barge and then they have to make their way to Tobago via the passenger ferry or Caribbean Airline and hope they get to Tobago before their cargo.
The passenger ferries have been unreliable with the T&T Express having to be taken out of service because of mechanical problems. Lewis said “this is an untenable situation that we have reached this stage. It points to a lack of proper maintenance over the period.”
As a result of that she said “we now have the two vessels almost every day something going wrong. We have to arrest the situation and supplement the maintenance capability to ensure the vessels are sea worthy. We are working towards getting that done.”
The Canadian firm Bay Ferries was contracted at a cost of US$7 million in 2006 to look after maintenance of the vessels. They left in October last year and a ten month maintenance contract valued at TT$2.4 million was given to Magellan Services led by Captain Ian McMillan to maintain the vessels.
Lewis said the arrangement with Magellan “came to an end in March,” she said she only received a copy of their “close out report this morning (Wednesday) and did not have time to look at it as yet.”
As a result she said “we know we have to supplement the maintenance of the vessels.”
