–another $7B worth of projects to be tendered soon

By Bebi Oosman

HUNDREDS of Berbice contractors, especially small entrepreneurs, on Tuesday, signed contracts for road works throughout Region Six totalling $6.9 billion, which is expected to greatly improve the lives of residents throughout the ancient county.
Vice-President, Bharrat Jagdeo, who met with the contractors in New Amsterdam, reiterated that the government’s intention is to incubate a large number of contractors.
He then announced: “Today, 389 persons getting [contracts] totalling 6.9 billion.”

Emphasising the challenges the government faced in ensuring more persons are able to benefit from contracts, Jagdeo said: “We have had all sorts of difficulties in trying to bring this new group of people into the bidding process, and even now, the reason it took so long after I spoke to you is that we have had a difficult time even now trying to separate people from multiple family owned businesses bidding and getting contracts.”

This, the Vice-President said, has become unconscionable where four or five members of a family are bidding for contracts.
“If we go that route, we will not be able to broaden the contractor core and secondly when people find this out, you don’t get the blame we do. First thing they say is the PPP tolerating this and it is something we are very intolerant of,” Jagdeo said.

To address these challenges, a rating system has been introduced to allow small contractors to secure work without being subject to a competitive bidding process.

Pointing to the newly implemented rate system, Jagdeo said: “I explained to you the rate system, you don’t have to bid today.”
He said the government had to pursue a system that was fair as well as maintains money for the state “because we also have a duty to taxpayers of this country.”

According to him, the rate that was established is set where the taxpayers can get value and the contractors given the historic rates of tendering, “can also make some money.”
He then pointed out to the contractors: “[If you were to bid] many of you may not get a single work because one person could potentially win 10-15 contracts. But we also have to leave room for the big contractors to grow.”

In terms of the government’s expectations, the Vice-President said: “Do not pay any bribe to anyone who come and tell you we help you get this work; nobody helped you get this work, you got this work because of your own efforts.”
Secondly, he advised: “If anyone accepts a bribe from you for doing shoddy work, any engineer or anyone, you let us know.”

Vice-President Jagdeo said while they want to create opportunities, contractors need to be cognisant that the quality of work is also paramount.
“We expect you to do quality work because if you don’t, you are not going to get work in the future. We will just put you on a list that you didn’t do well on a project, so it’s left on you. The work you do here leaves room for you to make money but don’t think it’s a one off thing. If you want to grow, we will provide you with the opportunities for growth and I expect you to do proper work,” he related.

On the topic of opportunities, Vice-President Jagdeo announced that $7 billion more worth of works will be tendered shortly, and these are for people who have greater capacity but that is where you will be judged on the basis of your bid.
“Not everyone will be allowed here to bid if you are just starting here you can’t bid because these are big projects, big roads in the region,” he related.

According to the Vice-President, the contractors who would have done work beyond $20 million- $30 million before will get a chance to bid; this is a competitive process.