Geisha Kow­lessar

It has been pro­posed that the Gov­ern­ment re­ceive mon­e­tary com­pen­sa­tion for the mal­func­tion­ing weapons sys­tem of the muli-mil­lion-dol­lar off­shore pa­trol ves­sels (OPVs). Un­der the Patrick Man­ning ad­min­is­tra­tion, the Gov­ern­ment ac­quired the ves­sels from the Eng­land-based com­pa­ny, British Aero­space Sys­tems. The mal­func­tion has re­sult­ed in 65 mem­bers of the Coast Guard be­ing strand­ed in Eng­land as the Gov­ern­ment was yet to de­cide the fate of the three ves­sels. Ac­cord­ing to Cap­tain Kir­ton Hug­gins yes­ter­day, the mal­func­tion­ing sys­tem has not been rec­ti­fied.

"But it was pro­posed that gov­ern­ment be com­pen­sat­ed by the com­pa­ny be­cause of the prob­lem iden­ti­fied in that area, but noth­ing con­crete has been de­cid­ed," he said. "All oth­er as­pects of the ves­sels, how­ev­er, are work­ing quite well," Hug­gins said. He said the of­fi­cers re­mained post­ed at Portsmouth and on­ly un­til a de­ci­sion has been tak­en by the Gov­ern­ment would they be al­lowed to re­turn home. Hug­gins is the di­rec­tor of the Strate­gic Project Man­age­ment Of­fice, un­der whose purview the OPVs di­rect­ly falls.

Each of­fi­cer, it is un­der­stood, ini­tial­ly re­ceived a dai­ly stipend of 18.50 pounds ster­ling. Af­ter re­peat­ed com­plaints lev­elled by the of­fi­cers, it was in­creased to 40 pounds ster­ling per day. Five of the 65 of­fi­cers have been man­dat­ed to over­see the con­tract of the OVPs. The oth­er 60, Hug­gins said, had com­plet­ed most of their spe­cialised train­ing which in­clud­ed learn­ing to use equip­ment, main­te­nance and re­pair. The of­fi­cers have been in Eng­land since 2008 and, ac­cord­ing to re­ports, have on­ly been al­lowed to re­turn home to vis­it their fam­i­lies on a max­i­mum of two oc­ca­sions since be­ing de­ployed.