From the disclosure on Tuesday’s new government press briefing carried live on the Cayman Islands Government Television Station, CIGTV, on Tuesday (8) Cline Glidden, the Tourism Minister, disclosed that entering into talks with a sole bidder was simply not an option as far as the UK was concerned. This meant it excluded the possibility of a design-build type project along the lines of the three failed attempts on the cruise port.

Glidden, although he was a United Democratic Party (UDP) backbencher, actually had led talks with the first two proposed developers at the beginning of the previous UDP government’s reign in power.

Glidden also disclosed an economic advisor from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) had recently visited the Cayman Islands to meet with the HE Governor Taylor, Attorney General Sam Bulgin, Auditor General Alastair Swarbrick and Port Authority staff. He said the FCO advisor would be working with the Cayman government on procurement issues.

The advisor had submitted a document outlining how the UK expects to move forward with the cruise berthing facilities and pointed out what was unacceptable.

He said Dwayne Seymour the Community Affairs Minister, and himself would be meeting the Florida Caribbean Cruise Association representative (FCCA) to clarify the UK’s position of support for the cruise ship facility as they had gotten conflicting, confusing and misleading reports.

The current law, Glidden said, is inflexible and there is no provision in it for a design-build project, therefore the Cayman government could not simply go back to the GLF bid or any other sole bidder.

He outlined what the tendering process would have to include which would take time and money, anywhere from $5M – $10M, and this was why the UDP government had taken the design-build road that had gone to nowhere.

There were, however, some components that would be required for the package, that had been undertaken over the last three years, and these would be given to the UK to see if they could be used.

The minister emphasised the need for a new cruise ship facility as the lack of it was having a significant damaging impact on the industry and most people were aware of the dire situation.

He also said, after questioning, that he had no problem with the UK advisor’s report being made public, but as the FCO and not the Cayman Islands Government authored it, he could not just automatically release the preliminary findings, so he would have to check with them