Submission from Mr Andrew Bell
Having founded St Helena's own shipping link
to the World in 1977, I seek to draw your Committee's attention
to the successive bad deals that have been done by the Department
For International Development ( DFID ) since August 2001. In the
matter of transport links this is a vital area over which the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office ( FCO ) should have exercised
its strategic thinking—so noticeably absent from the other
extravagant department.
1. SHIPPING
1.1 At the specific direction of the then
Secretary of State at DFID in December 1999, Curnow Shipping Limited
(CSL), which had run the shipping service since August 1977 and
had been entrusted with the management of a £32 million grant-in-aid
passenger cargo ship was, at her direction, excluded from tendering
for the 4th Contract to run from August 2001.
1.2 The 2001-06 shipping link management
contract was awarded to the Andrew Weir Group of London who, at
the time, were a much larger shipping company than it was within
the next three years: they had drastically shrunk.
1.3 As with CSL, Andrew Wier Shipping was
answerable to St Helena Line UK, a branch of Crown Agents who
with their hired-in shipping consultant, have fulfilled this role
since 1992 and never been required to tender for the job.
1.4 In 2005 the control of St Helena Line
was nominally repatriated to the Government of St Helena, in Jamestown,
on the Island but an indolent Governor has left control with Crown
Agents who have, in turn, never competed competitively for the
contract to undertake the task. Concurrently the standard of the
shipping service deteriorates, the net subsidy met by the grant-in-aid
budget, has increased to as much as £3.5 million per year
and the condition of St Helena Government's debt free asset goes
"back to wind" and even attracts the attention of the
Marine & Coastguard Agency's inspection regime (at Portland.
Dorset. October 2007).
1.5 With no wholly owned ships of their
own Andrew Weir Shipping have farmed out the manning of this Government
owned ship to a third party based in a tax haven.
1.6 Between 2001 and to date Andrew Weir
Shipping have trained no cadet officers for St Helena in stark
contrast to the 20 persons (plus) by the previous managers.
1.7.1 In 2005 ahead of the anticipated tender
for the 2006 Shipping Contract, the largest ship management company
in the world (which included the management of 48 passenger ships)
expressed an interest in bidding.
1.7.2 Despite this St Helena Line UK/Crown
Agents shipping consultant advised the Governor of St Helena that
"there was no one interested in quoting": this recommendation
became widely known and was incorrect.
1.7.3 In September 2006, after some initial
reluctance on the part of St Helena Line UK/Crown Agents, it was
revealed that Andrew Weir Shipping's contract to run the Shipping
Service had been extended until the Airport had been built on
the Island.
1.7.4 The 2006—undated contract had
never been competed for. Is it value for money? Has a good and
competitively priced deal been done ?
1.8 In 2007 the National Audit Office stated
that they had no powers to audit or question the fact that St
Helena Line UK/Crown Agents had never been required to openly
bid for their Government contract that they have held for the
previous 15 years : truly a milch cow with its own ringed fence.
2. TRANSPORT
CONSULTANCY
Since 2000 two London based consultancies, both
of who regularly feature in the pages of Private Eye—namely
WS Atkins and High-Point Rendall, have been used by DFID on behalf
of the Government of St Helena: neither are shipping specialists.
Such as has been made public their reports reveal few strategic
recommendations.
3. THE AIRPORT
PROJECT
3.1 Building a conventional Airport for
3,900 people in the South Atlantic is the 21st Century version
of the Great East Africa Groundnuts Scheme of the mid 20th Century.
3.2 After DFID presiding over one false
start of tenders to construct the Airport (2006) another is now
underweigh. It is only in the second attempt that a massive spending
on the Island's infrastructure (power supplies, water resources,
waste disposal, roads, housing for construction workers, and external
transport links) are being assessed. This isn't like extending
Luton Airport; this is in the middle of the Equatorial South Atlantic.
3.3 "We don't need an airport: we've
got one on Ascension Island" so said Governor John Massingham
(1981-84).
3.4.1 There is an alternative to spending
beyond £1 billion to build a conventional airport for St
Helena plus an open ended subsidy to pay an airline to fly to
it.
3.4.2 Your Committee needs to question the
current status quo of the Airport Project and ask whether
a civil aviation development that involves the Bell/Augusta Aerospace
Company's B609 Tiltrotor (and its variant, the 22-passenger Model
620) could be used.
3.4.3 The B609 is a proved aircraft with
a Vertical Take-off and Landing (VTOL) capability. It is seen
as a successor to commercial helicopters with confirmed orders
from operators serving the North Sea offshore oil industry. The
difference for them is enhanced productivity of a fast (275 knots
) pressurised flight (up to 25,000 ft) and a range of 1,000 miles.
3.4.4 In place of an Airport of indefinite
cost on St Helena's Prosperous Bay Plain, all that would be needed
for a B609 providing St Helena's civil airlink to Ascension Island
would be a patch of tarmac half the size of a football pitch.
This could be located at New Ground, on the Northern side of the
Island : this leeward side from the tradewind is never subject
to reduced visibility (which is a problem at the proposed Airport)
The approach to New Ground is straight in from the direction of
Ascension, 707 miles away. Facilities at New Ground need only
be minimal: a modest passenger terminal: navigational aids: a
road tanker providing re-fuelling: safety and emergency back-up.
3.5 A project utilizing the B609 would have
a pay-back aspect for Anglo-US relations.
In matters of Shipping, Transport Consultancy
and the Airport (as currently conceived) St Helena has been ill-served.
Your Committee's deliberations can be re-direct
a course to cost effective progress.
15 October 2007
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