A security breach at the Roraima Airways maintenance facility at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri, has left the company with millions of dollars in losses from theft and deliberate damage to its ground handling equipment and raised wider questions about security within the fenced perimeter and restricted area at the country’s international airport.
Stabroek Business has learnt that Roraima Airways discovered the break-in at around 08:30 hrs on Sunday, May 25th as they were preparing to provide the company’s customary ground handling services for an incoming international flight.
This newspaper has seen an inventory of the losses and damage which include the theft of a generator, a compressor, heavy duty tool kits and a heavy duty drill. The intruders also appeared to have done considerable and deliberate damage to several key pieces of Roraima’s ground handling equipment prompting the company’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Captain Gerry Gouveia to tell Stabroek Business that he could not rule out the likelihood that “sabotage” was the motive for the crime.
According to Gouveia the specific instances of sabotage of equipment included the draining of both fluids and fuel from the company’s forklift, the cutting of lines and electrical wires on the equipment and draining of fuel from other pieces of equipment. It also included the theft of six fire extinguishers, three rotating beacons and the removal of a pump from a tractor. “Apart from the fact of the actual break-in, I am particularly curious about the nature and purpose of the damage done to the equipment and the identity of the intruders,” Gouveia said.
The Roraima maintenance facility is situated within the Fenced Perimeter area of the aerodrome, and is in a compound built by Roraima Airways, located behind the hangar formerly owned by the now defunct Guyana Airways Corporation .(GAC). Gouveia told Stabroek Business that last Sunday’s incident has to be considered as a major breach of airport security ”since our compound is surrounded by an eight feet fence with a locked eight feet gate and is located in the restricted area of the airport, the evidence suggested, that there were several persons involved, a lot of time was spent during the theft and that a vehicle was used to remove the equipment.”
Chief Executive Officer of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport Corporation (CJIAC) Ramesh Ghir told Stabroek Business that the incident was “the largest” of its kind that he was aware of. He said that one of his personal security-related concerns in relation to the airport had to do with the hundreds of squatter dwellings that had sprung up on airport lands just outside the perimeter areas. “In the hangar areas close to where the recent thefts took place there are at least fifty squatter houses. Ghir said that in the wake of the recent Roraima incident the CJIAC would be making yet another attempt to have the squatters removed from near the airport’s perimeter fence.
Gouveia said that the area housing the Roraima Facility is situated in a particularly dark area of the aerodrome and that the company had been in several meetings seeking to persuade the Cheddi Jagan International Airport Corporation (CJIAC) to either install the required lighting or to allow the company to install lighting in the area at is own expense directly from the power company. Ghir told Stabroek Business, however, that the airport authorities had been cooperating with Roraima in relation to its request to install its own lighting. “We have minutes of meetings that we have held with Roraima officials to address this matter,” Ghir said, adding that approval and execution of works required inputs from the Guyana Power and Light Company.
Roraima Airways staff at the airport are currently undergoing intensive training being conducted by Delta airlines instructors to prepare them to assume responsibility for providing ground-handling services for Delta Airlines which is due to make its inaugural flight to Guyana on Sunday. Gouveia told Stabroek Business that the company was now “throughly prepared” to handle the new Delta service. “The way in which Roraima is organized and operated means that this incident while significant would not affect our ability to continue to provide world class ground-handling operations,” Gouveia said.
Gouveia told Stabroek Business that apart from the losses suffered by Roraima as a result of the incident, he was also concerned over what he described as “the more general problem of airport security and the apparent lack of capability to provide adequate security for the entire aerodrome. He said that as far as he was aware there had been several recent security breaches within the restricted area at the airport. Gouveia said that while he acknowledges the effort and the hard work being done by the airport CEO, “We cannot ignore these breaches of security at our international airport Gouveia said.
Ghir told Stabroek Business that while he was aware of some security-related incidents at the airport he believed that in general the authorities had worked hard to ensure the security of the facility. He said that the CJIAC had continually emphasized to the various services using the airport the importance of ensuring that they provided their own security services to protect their property. Ghir said that as far as he was aware while Roraima usually deployed a single security guard at its maintenance bond there was no guard on duty at the time of the incident.
Asked to comment on the security services provided by the CJIAC Ghir said that the airport authorities utilized the services of the Special Constabulary of the Guyana Police Force. He explained that it was impossible for security personnel to permanently monitor the airport’s 10,000-ft perimeter fence. Ghir told Stabroek Business that there were squatters living in the vicinity of the perimeter fence at some points and that was not the first time that the perimeter fence had been cut.
Meanwhile, an official of Roraima Airways told Stabroek Business on Wednes-day that since the incident the company had received documentation from the CJIAC in relation to its lighting request.
