The Financial Administration and Audit (FAA) Act requires the Auditor General to certify that a public private partnership (PPP) involves only minimal contingent liabilities accruing to the Government. This assessment is only required for ‘user pays’ PPP as these projects would not be included in the public debt. User-pays PPPs are commercially free standing and are paid for by charges, fees or tolls by the users of the service or infrastructure, as is the case for the Norman Manley International Airport (NMIA) public private partnership. The NMIA PPP achieved financial closure with the signing of the Shareholder Funding Agreement on October 2, 2019 and the operations of the Airport handed over to PAC Kingston Airport Limited in that month.

Hence, in keeping with the requirements of the FAA Act, I assessed the contingent liability exposure of the NMIA concession arrangement over the medium-term. Of note, this assessment can be undertaken after financial closure is achieved. Based on my review of the Concession Agreement using the IMF/World Bank Public Private Partnership Fiscal Risk Assessment Model (PFRAM), I have assessed that the NMIA concession arrangement contains only minimal contingent liability.