By Wendella Davison

YOUNG contractors in Region Three are receiving much help in filling out contract documents to bid for works in the region; an initiative which has seen more of them benefitting from the national pie.

The decision stems from a suggestion from Finance Minister, Winston Jordan, for young contractors to be given assistance with contracts, Regional Executive Officer (REO), Jennifer Ferreira Dougall said.

“I found a lot of young people didn’t want to come forward to buy contracts because they didn’t know how to fill out the bid documents, so I had two employees help out with that aspect of the contract documents,” she told the Guyana Chronicle in an exclusive interview.
This year, Region Three has 242 projects to be executed to the value of $758M.

“We are now closing for the first quarter which comes to an end this month-end, all of the tenders for works for this period are already out, including the tenders for the roads bridges and schools under projects that are classified as capital projects,” the REO said.

She explained that capital projects for which the big contractors mostly submit bids are evaluated by the National Procurement Tender Board, even though they are given out by the region. The contracts for weeding and the rehabilitation of bridges, sanitary blocks and school guard huts gain the attention of the small or pre-qualified contractors

The REO said, as the officer with responsibility to ensure that projects are done and the monies spent are within the boundaries, as per activity, “I am really happy with what has been happening out there.”

According to her, work projects such as bridges, schools and roads that are classified as capital projects as they are evaluated by the National Tender and Procurement Board (NTPB), are on stream, as she explained that there are works for which pre-qualified or the small contractors can bid so that they too “can get into the scoop and not have to tangle with the big contractors”.

She said that for the first set of contracts, some 717 persons bought bids, including some smaller players.

“We had a lot of young contractors and I think those young people in the region are happy, they are doing their best in terms of some of the contracts that were awarded to them,” she said.

The REO however promised that as the chairperson for the regional tender board, she will try her utmost to ensure before year-end, most of the contractors get jobs so they can carry on with their daily lives.

Ferreira-Dougall cautioned, though, that she is not prepared to award a contract just for the sake of awarding one.

“You have to have submitted a bid for the works, and too, be the lowest responsive bidder.”

So far, she said, only two persons have queried why they did not win a contract, but same was explained to them via letter, that they were not the lowest responsive bidder.

In detailing the difference between the terms “lowest bidder” and “lowest responsive bidder”, the REO pointed out that even though a contractor may have submitted the lowest bid for a contact, that does not mean that the contract would be awarded to him if all of the required documents were not submitted.

In that case, the contract would be awarded to the “lowest responsive bidder”, who in addition to having all of the documents in order, has submitted a low cost for executing the works.