Rising from the tides

The MSAR government paid a 14-year old debt of more than MOP600,000 (US$75,000) to construction consultant company Macau Professional Services Limited (MPS) for a study on ‘urban renewal and requalification project for the Inner Harbour and Barra area’, according to a dispatch published in Monday’s Official Gazette.
“I guess it’s better late than never, but this payment is a fraction of the amount of the initial contract. I don’t even know why they suddenly decided to award this amount. They must be trying to finish the issue,” Director of MPS and architect, Miguel Campina, told Business Daily in a phone interview yesterday.
MPS, a construction consulting firm part of CESL Asia, was awarded a contract in 2001 by then-Macau Chief Executive, Edmund Ho, for MOP5 million, which was recently adjusted to MOP3.4 million with the recent Official Gazette dispatch stating the value of the “finished works” had been reduced.
An amount of MOP2.18 million was paid in 2001, but the last payment of MOP656,807 was made to the company in 2002. However, Mr. Campina, who was part of the project at the time, told Business Daily that more important than the delay in the payment, is the story of a missed “golden opportunity” to renew the Inner Harbour area of Macau.
“What’s harder to understand for me is that the awarded contract study results weren’t taken into account, with no benefit for the administration and the local population from the effort made and the formulated proposals,” Campina told Business Daily.
Change in the road
The project intended to maintain sustainable growth in the area, with the preservation of some of the buildings considered at the time apt for recovery. However, according to the architect, the project was suddenly abandoned by the government. The exploration rights in the area were then given to Stanley Ho’s gaming group Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau (STDM), for the construction of the Ponte 16 Sofitel Hotel.
“The study was made, and the first part was delivered, but meanwhile there was a government decision to suspend the study, with decisions being made at the time contradicting the stated direction for the area recovery; namely when the administration decided to designate the area now known as the Ponte 16 to STDM. This decision was on a collision course with the proposed course for the Inner Harbour revitalisation,” the architect told Business Daily.
Campina believes the value of the developed project was low when compared to the benefits of the study’s proposed objective, such as a temporary solution to resolving the issue of flooding in the Inner Harbour. However, competing financial interests led to the cancellation of the study by the government at the time. He added that “in 14 years nobody has made anything and the problem [of flooding] continues, with the government stating it will provide a solution” even though the solution was proposed at the time.
“To make decisions for territory recovery and organisation, clear objectives and political will are needed. When the latter is missing, decisions are always made to protect the financial interests in the equation. Therefore the ones with more chance to triumph are the entities with financial and lobbying capacity that can influence political decisions. I don’t think there’s anybody who can say with all honesty that the solution found for Ponte 16 serves the interests of Macau. It surely serves STDM’s interests and the people directly involved with the project and its operations,” Campina said to Business Daily.
Business Daily sent a request for comment to STDM, the Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau (DSSOPT) and the Secretariat for Transport and Public Works, but no response was received at the time this newspaper went to print.