After being forced out by NDP, Carnival is back!
At the time of making this statement, Hon Vanterpool was part of a high level Government team attending a plaque presentation ceremony on the occasion of the inaugural visit of the Carnival Liberty to the newly renovated cruise pier this morning, Saturday March 28, 2015.
“I have been spending a lot of time with them. We met in October, we met last month again and we have a very open conversation with them. They are very willing to come back and do business. I think there were miscommunications in the past why whatever happened, happened,” said Hon Vanterpool as he responded to the question as to how significant it was for Carnival to have been the first to have docked at the new pier.
Carnival pull-out
Carnival Cruise Line had announced in November 2013 that they pulled port calls to the VI especially for the year 2015 since they could not be furnished with confirmation for berthing for the latter part of 2014 and for 2015.
Minister for Communications and Works Honourable Mark H. Vanterpool had told this news outfit back then that he hadn’t been officially informed but was aware that the BVI Ports Authority (BVIPA) could not furnish Carnival with dates for 2015.
“Carnival is a very important group for us though and we would want to continue and we are having dialogue with them all the time but they couldn’t wait any longer to know whether they can have the berth being there at 2015 at this point,” Minister Vanterpool had stated back in November 2013.
Miscommunication
“The miscommunication was mostly from the point of view that Carnival felt that they had to go and negotiate with another company to come to the dock and that wasn’t so at all,” said Hon Vanterpool.
He added that the two cruise companies that have preferences, Disney and Norweigan Cruise Lies, have that for certain times but the BVI Ports Authority is the one who really determines who comes to the dock. “So we have opened that discussion quite clearly with Carnival and Royal Caribbean. They mis-understood, they thought that they had to go through those companies to have permission to dock and that’s absolutely not the case.”
Hon Vanterpool said that in the case of Norwegian Cruise and Disney Cruise Line, they have some preferential times, “But there are many other times that they are not going to be able to dock when other ship companies come. In fact we invited the other cruise companies to make, whether it’s a five year agreement or three years… to have the other times that are available on the dock and so that is continuing.”
The Works Minister said while Carnival Liberty was granted the honour of being the first to dock at the new pier it is not something they intend to continue to permit prior to its completion as the progress of the work stands to be affected in terms of being slowed down.
Cruise pier blighted by controversy & accidents
The arrival of Carnival Cruise Line and the impending opening of the extended cruise pier are sighs of further relief for the NDP since the cruise pier development project recently escaped a Commission of Inquiry (CoI).
The CoI was requested following two reports, one by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) led by Opposition Leader Honourable Ralph T. O’Neal OBE and the other by Virgin Islands Auditor General Sonia M. Webster. Both reports found alleged corruption, lack of transparency, conflict of interest and that no one was looking out for the taxpayers of the Virgin Islands.
UK-appointed Governor of the Virgin Islands His Excellency John S. Duncan OBE on Friday March 17, 2015 announced that he found no need for a CoI on the cruise pier development project.
Three accidents reported
While workers on site have informed this news site that there have been more accidents than reported in the media, Virgin Islands News Online has reported on three accidents on the controversial project.
More than two persons were reportedly injured on March 8, 2015 when the boom of a crane collapsed on a tug. Reliable sources informed that a main cable on the crane snapped resulting in the boom crashing down on a tug that was close by.
On December 18, 2014 there was a collision between two barges while on October 6, 2014, a truck ferrying stones at the work site overturned into the water as it was negotiating a narrow pass.
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35 Responses to “After being forced out by NDP, Carnival is back!”
to look here: news flash, no vessel can dock at that pier without being granted authorization of the BVI Port Authority(trying to understand this great lesson Mark & Claude got today).....can we just give God thanks for what he bless us with and move away from the political bulls£$%!!!! some of the modern day BV Islanders are 2-simple minded
Keep dreaming myrun election night u going $h1t yourself like they did in 2007 at dr smith house with all that wasted food
"Examples of where best practice may have been compromised include the failure to apply tender requirements even where prescribed financial levels have been exceeded. The lack of guidance in terms of what constitutes the condition(s) for waivers has almost certainly compromised best practice and the achievement of VfM and may have allowed contracts to be awarded without open and fair competition," the consultant report noted.
It validated what the audit general found. So who gets reprimanded? That is the problem. there are no consequences for bad behavior-- so it will happen again...