WORKS and Transport Minister Jack Warner has praised the Trinidad and Tobago Civil Aviation Authority (TTCAA) for the approximately $200 million "state-of-the-art" complex it is constructing with no assistance from Government.

"These guys didn't ask me for a 'help me'. And they don't expect any. And they were able to build this facility from their own resource and the more of us who can do this, it is better for us. I say again, I like the initiative, I like the drive and I want to commend them very highly," Warner said yesterday during a tour of the site of the Civil Aviation Complex at Caroni North Bank Road in Piarco.

He noted there were no cost overruns, it was being built within time and budget, and was "one of the wonders" of this country.

TTCAA director general Ramesh Lutchmedial described the complex as the "most modern in the world", with technology that should last for the next 15 years. He said the complex, which consists of the air navigation services, administration centre and training centre, is scheduled to be commissioned in six months. He said the complex was financed by the authority's own resources from the fees they collect for providing air navigation services.

Warner was given a tour of the complex, including the new control tower.

TTCAA air traffic management system project manager Augustus McIntosh noted that Trinidad and Tobago was one of the first five countries in the world to use the new Communication Navigation Surveillance Air Traffic Management system.

He said there will be a cost benefit, as it will allow for direct flights and also allow the authority to fit a lot more aircraft in a smaller airspace. He said currently there was one primary and one secondary surveillance radar in this country, but the new system will have several radars plugged in and there will be triple redundancies in case of failure.

Lutchmedial told Warner the TTCAA wants to be able to fix salaries without having to go to the Public Sector Negotiating Committee and the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO). He said they were losing some of their best people to other countries because they were making more outside Trinidad and Tobago. "Unless we can retain our employees, they will leave," he said.

He noted that another challenge was a job evaluation that had been completed since 2006 but was yet to be approved by the CPO. He also requested an amendment of the Civil Aviation Act 2001 to allow the TTCAA to engage in other financial activities associated with civil aviation and become self-sufficient.

Warner described the delay in the job evaluation as "scandalous" and promised to have a draft settlement arranged in 30 days. He also promised to look into the requested amendment of the act.