–Vice-President Jagdeo, Minister Edghill urge them to always produce quality work, utilise these opportunities to enhance their lives

OPERATING on the basis of enhancing community infrastructure and expanding the contracting pool, the Vice-President of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo, while meeting with over 600 small contractors from Region Four, said that the government is creating opportunities for people to develop their lives regardless of their race, gender, or geological locations.

Vice-President Jagdeo related to contractors that while the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) is creating opportunities for them to develop their lives and the lives of their families, they are also expecting people to deliver work of high standard.
According to him, while the Government of Guyana is urging and assisting people in getting “a foot through the door” in growing their business, they will not sit back and accept incomplete or substandard work from anyone.
“While we are creating more opportunities for people, and we expect you to do a good piece of work, we didn’t divide this system; we wanted to include people… And so, the system that we have [created] is to incubate; that is, you start here, you get your foot into the door, and based on your own efforts and how you manage this, you will grow,” Jagdeo said.

He also advised persons who are awarded small contracts to manage their resources by ensuring that they utilise the advances on their projects and not on themselves.
While emphasising that the advances are not the profit, Jagdeo said that the government has removed the bond on the advance, which allows more small contractors to get an opportunity in the contracting field without any major financial stress.
The Vice-President said: “The advance is not the profit; the advance is to get you to start your work. We [the PPP/C government] have removed the bond on the advance; for small contractors, you still had to go to the bank and find a bond to cover the advance money. We have removed that since we got into office, so that we can help small [contractors].”

He said that while the bigger contracting firms are not excluded from community projects, the government is working towards ensuring that more small contractors get the opportunity and experience with the smaller job, while using the bigger firms for the more advanced projects.

Jagdeo said that massive developments are happening all across Guyana on a daily basis, and while the government is playing their part in creating opportunities for the people, the onus is also on them to ensure that they are involved in the fast-moving economy and not left behind.
Minister of Public Works Bishop Juan Edghill, in his presentation, said that three weeks ago they met with and asked the small contractors to follow the process to be pre-qualified and submit their paperwork at the specified deadline.
According to him, the $11.5 billion of investment has been awarded to 947 small contractors in Region Four, which includes East Bank Demerara and East Coast Demerara.
While 673 small contractors signed their contracts on Friday at the ACCC, the remaining 274 will be signed by the end of the new week.

Minister Edghill also pleaded with the contractors to ensure that they become acquainted with people of the community in which they are working, and explain to them the works that are going to be done.
He also asked that they deliver quality concrete roads by ensuring that the required PSI of 45000 is used, so as to avoid future damage to the completed project, as contractors will have to fix it out of their pockets.
The Minister of Public Works also advised the hundreds of diverse contractors to take advantage of the opportunities provided to them, and improve their quality of life and livelihoods for their families