The Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL) has rejected a request by McDan Aviation Handling Services to reimburse an amount of US$1,943,936.43 as cost of renovation and refurbishment of Terminal 1 at the Kotoka International Airport.
According to the GACL, an offer letter dated December 13, 2018, and an associated agreement dated November 26, 2019, granted the ground floor of the Terminal to McDan on an ‘as-is’ basis.
“Clauses 5(e) of the Offer Letter and 1.6 of the Tenancy Agreement specifically state that: The Tenant shall bear the full cost of set up of the premises and shall not be reimbursed thereof or for any other activities. Reference the foregoing clauses, McDan is not entitled to be reimbursed/credited for any monies spent in setting up the Terminal 1 space.”
“We reiterate GACL’s position during our meeting of Friday, March 4, 2022, that, until matters relating to all debt, advertising bills and related issues are settled, GACL cannot allow the opening of the Terminal for operations.”
These were contained in a rejoinder signed by the Managing Director of the Company, Pamela Djamson Tettey and addressed to McDan Aviation Handling Services in response to a request for the opening of the McDan Aviation FBO Terminal.
According to her, Ghana Airports is aware of the difference in companies, which has rightly been captured in its books but stressed for the purposes of debt recovery, all outstanding payments owed GACL by any subsidiary or division of MacDan Group should be paid.
“On the issue of lands, our records show that GACL has allocated three parcels of land to McDan shipping over the past decade. These consist of the land opposite Action Chapel in 2012, land adjacent to Action Chapel in 2017 and land within the Courier Enclave in 2018.”
“GACL is demanding that all outstanding payments relating to any of these lands be paid irrespective of any lawsuits that are claimed to be ongoing. It is worth noting that GACL is aware that the said lands have been developed already and being used commercially,” she said.
Mrs. Jameson Tettey pointed to paragraph 3 of McDan’s letter that it creates an impression there was an understanding between MacDan Shipping and GACL for the land to be protected by MacDan.
These allocations, she said, were made within the context of its operational strategy to boost revenue generation and added, “At no point of these allocations to MacDan did GACL agree with MacDan to protect the lands in lieu of payment of premiums and ground rents among other charges hence the issue of protecting the land for eighteen years should not come when we are discussing payments.”
Every investor, she said, is allocated land for a particular purpose pays premium, ground rent and other administrative charges as stipulated by GACL’s offer letter regardless of whether or not the investor develops the land.
Royalty payments, she said, are made only when the investor commences business operations.
She added that GACL acknowledged receipt of a cheque for GH¢138,000.00 which is equivalent to US$20,000.00 as part payment of the FBO licence fee as agreed during the meeting of Friday, March 4, 2022.
Source: Mypublisher24.com