During a parliamentary sitting held in St. Vincent and the Grenadines last Thursday, Airports Minister Terrance Ollivierre publicly disclosed that the government has finalized a competitive tender process for janitorial services at Argyle International Airport (AIA), splitting the previously airport-wide single cleaning contract into three separate awarded agreements. The new contracts mark the end of a nearly 9-year tenure for Patriot Co. Ltd., the firm that has held exclusive cleaning duties at AIA since the facility first launched operations back in 2017. The announcement came in response to a formal parliamentary query tabled by Opposition Leader Ralph Gonsalves, who was not in attendance for the session, which had requested full details of all awarded AIA cleaning contracts, their respective scopes, durations, and total monetary values. Ollivierre outlined that the tender window ran between May and July 2026, drawing submissions from a total of six local firms. Three bidders were disqualified during the evaluation process: two were eliminated for failing to demonstrate sufficient equipment and on-staff personnel to fulfill the contract requirements, while a third was rejected due to a documented track record of substandard cleaning performance at the airport, with widespread public complaints previously logged over unsanitary conditions in restrooms and other high-traffic airport areas. The remaining three qualified bids were assigned to distinct operational zones across the airport campus. The largest contract, valued at EC$50,000 covering cleaning of the main passenger terminal, AIA taxi booth, and public airport car park, was awarded to Vinci Clean Floor Maintenance Services, a long-standing firm owned by sitting Deputy Prime Minister St. Clair Leacock. The second contract, worth EC$15,000 for janitorial duties at the cargo terminal and on-site garage facilities, was granted to the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Teachers Union. The third EC$18,000 contract, covering the Civil Aviation Department administrative compound and the critical airfield lighting station, was awarded to U Clean Cleaning Services, an entity managed by the national Public Service Union. Prior to this new tender round, the single full-airport janitorial contract held by Patriot Co. Ltd. was valued at EC$79,253.56. Public records show Patriot Co. Ltd.’s leadership includes Noel Jackson, a former candidate for the ruling Unity Labour Party (ULP) and longstanding party activist, who previously served as president of the National Labour Congress (NDC). During Jackson’s tenure, the NDC partnered with the Windward Islands Farmers Association to launch the non-profit Solidarity in Action Inc. Back in 2010, the ULP administration at the time terminated an existing lease for a state-owned public car park in central Kingstown near the Financial Complex, which had initially been developed by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, and re-awarded the lease to Solidarity in Action Inc.
Deputy PM’s company, trade unions awarded AIA cleaning contracts
