 Prime Minister, Hon. Philip J. Pierre's decision to review the Uranora International Airport HIA redevelopment project has saved taxpayers what was on cost to add up to a billion-dollar debt burden. Concerned about the project's impact on government coffers, Hon. Pierre and his Cabinet last August appointed a seven-member review committee to assess the project. The Prime Minister disclosed some of the committee's findings at the St. Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association's 58th AGM on August 26. The redevelopment of the terminal building at HIA was projected to cost US $175 million or EC $472.5 million. The main contractor for the largest national project was elected by the Prime Minister without any form of competitive bidding. On instructions, the terminal building was relocated from the original site to an area for the West, requiring 10 times more piling from the original plan of 311 piles to 3,006 piles. The cost of the foundation escalated from $4.86 million to EC $51.3 million, a cost overrun in the foundation of $46.4 million. The government has already incurred tens of millions of dollars in cost overruns to date. Hon. Pierre says the International Financial Cooperation, IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank, has been re-engaged to advise the government on the most prudential options to proceed with the HIA redevelopment project. The project would have ended up costing approximately US $400 million or EC $1.086 billion on its current project that was at September last year before the increases as far as inflation etc. are concerned. As a responsible government, whereas we want the airport to continue, we want the airport to be renovated, in all good conscience, we could not continue on that path. What did we do? The Cabinet of Ministers has invited the International Financial Cooperation, the IFC of the World Bank, who are the original people who were involved when the project was thought to be a PPP arrangement, to review the options proposed by the committee and to advise the government on the best value engineering option for the continuation of the HIA redevelopment project in the interest of the people of San Lucia. Two previous administrations have made ill-fated attempts to redevelop the urinore international airport in Veyfond. Court documents filed in the United States have implicated former government ministers in relation to a criminal probe involving a privately owned construction company. More recently, the financing arrangements and escalating scope of the latest attempt to action the overdue project have cost taxpayers a $2 million penalty levied by the IFC from the office of the Prime Minister, Rihanni Isidou.