Min­is­ter of Fi­nance Colm Im­bert MP has giv­en a re­port to the coun­try on the ANR Robin­son In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port project at the post-Cab­i­net me­dia brief­ing.

He has in­di­cat­ed that the project is 91 per cent com­plete and will be fin­ished by the end of March 2025. The air­port is on sched­ule to be ful­ly op­er­a­tionalised by mid-2025.

Im­bert al­so as­sert­ed that the project “is be­ing built in ac­cor­dance with the high­est in­ter­na­tion­al stan­dards, for an air­port of this type.”

The min­is­ter's up­date comes on the heels of Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley ac­cus­ing Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar of mak­ing a “scan­dalous out­burst and tor­rent of base­less al­le­ga­tions” on the project.

Dr Row­ley was re­spond­ing to her call for a crim­i­nal probe in­to the project and fur­ther al­le­ga­tions that PNM fi­nanciers were hired as sub-con­trac­tors.

On Mon­day night, Per­sad-Bisses­sar told UNC sup­port­ers that the project ac­crued $431 mil­lion in cost over­runs ow­ing to more than a thou­sand days of de­layed works.

In re­sponse, PM Row­ley said in a state­ment that while there have been some el­e­ments of vari­a­tion over the project's ex­e­cu­tion, it is not un­com­mon for its size and scope.

He said Gov­ern­ment can jus­ti­fy every cent that it takes to es­tab­lish the fa­cil­i­ty, re­it­er­at­ing that there is no pro­fes­sion­al mis­con­duct or scan­dal in­volved.