MINISTER of Finance, Winston Jordan, is working along with the General Contractors Association of Guyana (GCAG) to address recurring issues affecting the development of new and small contractors.

On Monday, the minister along with Chairman of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board, (NPTAB) Berkley Wickham, met with the association at the ministry’s boardroom.
The main issues coming out were the limited access of small contractors to financial resources and equipment.

Delving right into the matter, Past GCAG President Aubrey Jones explained, that small contractors were often unable to meet the financial security requirements such as bid bonds, mobilisation and performance bonds to qualify for contracts.

In addition, the small contractors’ inability to provide information such as their annual average turnover, technical qualifications, financial capabilities and equipment capabilities sees them being eliminated, during the evaluation period.

Explaining further the limitations regarding equipment, Committee Member Elroy Adams noted, that while small contractors might be the lowest bidders for a contract, they often missed out on opportunities because other, larger contractors were able to meet the specific equipment criteria stipulated.

The association therefore called on the government and their agencies to look into lessening the number of stringent requirements, considering the challenges faced in acquiring equipment.

Shedding greater light on the issues, Wickham reminded the association that contracts are bound by the Procurement Act, which outlines specific criteria that contractors participating must meet.

Nonetheless, he also pointed to the amendments to the Small Business Act (2004) which, when passed in the National Assembly, would see 20 per cent of public procurement being set aside for small businesses.

Wickham expounded that a small business was defined as a business having not more than 25 employees; not more than $60M gross annual revenue and not more than $20M business assets.

“I’m sure that under that small business programme – and we’ve made recommendations already in that regard-that some of these requirements; these stringent requirements, would not be there,” Wickham said. “The programme was designed to build capacity and the only way we can build capacity is by nurturing [businesses].”

Meanwhile, Minister Jordan said that while willing away bid bonds, bid security and mobilisation is a “tall order’, the GCAG contractors could have greater access to equipment by pooling their resources and merging when necessary.

“I think that we have to find creative ways, within your own contactors association, of perhaps having a pool of equipment. I don’t see many ways around that, seeing that individually you don’t have the financial capability to buy expensive equipment,” he began.

“[You] can start small by trying to procure reasonably good shape, second hand equipment which will perhaps cost less, and there’s no age limitation to equipment in terms of importation. Then, a pool is available to the contractors association to get around the whole issue of equipment availability. The same could be said also of skills and expertise availability.”

Jordan also encouraged the small and new contractors to seek out mentorship opportunities with larger companies, which can provide them with best practices to get ahead in their businesses.
Also coming out of the meeting was the issue of contractors having to wait long periods of time to collect payments.

Minister Jordan pledged that his ministry will do its part to ensure that payments are processed within the minimum time. He promised that he would continue to advocate for similar action from other government agencies.

Reaching out further, the minister also invited the GCAG to participate in a seminar for contractors which the ministry could set up, to ensure that more contractors understood the technical aspect and requirements for an effective tender.