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Pre-qualification measures being used to facilitate small, new contractors — Edghill
Kaieteur News – Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill, recently noted that the Government has been actively honouring its legal obligation to ensure small and new contractors secure jobs with the State. During an interview with Kaieteur News, Edghill revealed that prequalification measures are being used to facilitate this process.
According to Edghill, the mechanism allows for smaller contractors to get a chance at securing work from the government which is keeping with the law that stipulates that small contractors must benefit from at least 20 percent of State contracts.
Section 11:1 of the Small Business Act of 2004 states that “the Government shall best endeavour to ensure that at least 20 percent of the procurement of goods and services required annually by the Government is obtained from small businesses.”
To ensure this is achieved, Edghill said his Ministry is among the government agencies, which took steps to make the bidding process a bit more suitable for smaller contractors.
“For instance, we have announced that we will be disqualifying large contractors who seek to bid alongside the smaller contractors… because we have noticed a trend where the big contractors are bidding alongside the small contractors and securing even the small work. So we have decided to put a stop to it,” he said.
In addition, the Minister noted that ever since assuming office last August, the Government has amplified its efforts for smaller and new contractors to benefit from State projects.
“In fact, we have been going beyond that 20 percent quota because I know for certain that there has been engagement with the small contractors at the various ministries. The list of contractors has grown significantly to include lesser-known persons,” the Minister said.
He explained that these contractors are benefitting from every level o
Public Works Minister Juan Edghill (third from right) and other officials at the opening of the newly rehabilitated Hunter Street road project.
f work in the Ministries.
“For instance, at the Ministry of Public Works, we have about 100 contractors to issue and 1,600 people applying; a significant portion of them are new and smaller companies who have been encouraged to bid at the regional tender boards and ministerial tender board,” Edghill said.
“And it’s not just for road projects, it’s for cleaning, the various types of supplies and so forth. We want to make sure no one is left out,” he added.
In the meantime, Edghill said that he will continue to lobby for new contractors to join the list of awardees of State contracts.
Speaking earlier in the week at the commissioning of the Hunter Street G$90M road project which was done by race car driver, Mark Vieira, the Minister issued a call for contractors who felt that they had no chance of bidding and getting through with contracts to come on board and be part of Guyana’s development process.
Alluding to Vieira who is a new contractor with no previous experience, the Minister noted that the call was made specifically to those contractors and companies who have no experience in building or bidding for road projects.
“I am inviting contractors who felt that they have not had a chance before to come on board. Guyana is open to participation from everyone. Get your best engineers, hire the best teams and come on board. If funding is made available for fixing all the roads in this country, we don’t have enough contractors,” Edghill told the gathering.
Consecutive governments have over the years faced significant criticisms over the way in which small contractors were treated at level of the tender boards. Chief among the issues is the sidelining of smaller companies by the larger ones in the procurement system.
Both governments had pledged to implement to ensure for small contractors to get a piece of the billion-dollar State spending pie.
However, in one of its latest annual reports the Small Business Bureau (SBB) pointed to some concerns relating to contrasts between the Procurement Act (2003) and the Small Business Act (2004), which will hamper the process towards ensuring a guarantee and commitment of 20% Government procurement from small businesses.
The report noted, “Nevertheless, discussions will continue to ensure the smooth implementation of the Procurement Act, which will provide an opportunity for small businesses to be guaranteed, access to government contracts.”
“While work is being done on the development of the Small Business Procurement Policy, the Small Business Bureau encouraged ministries and other government agencies to buy from small businesses,” the report added.
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