The initiative that saw small community contractors last year undertake over $20 billion in concrete road works across the country, has been expanded as the Ministry of Public Works (MoPW) spends a significant sum of the $53 billion allocated this year for miscellaneous roads, on small contracts.
Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill told Stabroek News on Friday that evaluations of the work of the small contractors yielded such positive results that the programme has been expanded and his ministry has also decided to add additional resources to all for stringent oversight.
“In a systematic way, we have widened or expanded… so that there are more contractors now, more contracts now…” Edghill said.
“It provides opportunities for more people to be a part; for greater employment generation in communities; greater experience gaining et cetera, and in a faster and more efficient and systematic way. We [MoPW] have broadened the team, the engineers, more technical persons and so forth… for more efficient inspections. We have also added more vehicles to the fleet,” he informed.
The minister noted that last year there had been no issues with the work as the concrete roads are durable but there had been some challenges with restoring road shoulders and other minor things. “All the concrete roads that were done had been to specifications and tested to ensure correct PSI, length, thickness and so on… no issues. No issues,” he said.
“Challenges in the past were restoring and enhancing or repairing shoulders. Those were addressed and with these recent contracts it wouldn’t be a problem…,” he added.
Earlier this month, the government announced that it had allocated $11.5 billion for the upgrade of 947 community roads in Region Four and another $6.9 billion in contracts for the upgrading of 400 roads across the county.
Edghill said that those monies along with other sets are a part of the $53 billion that had been allocated for miscellaneous road works in the 2024.
“The budget allocated $70 billion, but a part of that went to pay for rollovers and so on and $53 billion remained. In all the regions, miscellaneous roads total $53 billion. All won’t be going to small contactors, because they are for building other roads with the big contractors and so on,” he explained.
He said that he did not have the breakdown at hand, but would subsequently provide it to show what had been allotted to small contractors.
Last year, the government had announced that instead of asphalt, it would replace flood-prone community roads with concrete. As such, it provided contracts to residents of those communities, in a process aimed at not only helping them generate funds, but build capacity to bid on other projects. The Ministry of Public Works had rolled out the programme.
It was a decision which the government believed would enable taxpayers to get value for money and at the same time be able to do real-time assessments on projects through village scrutiny.
“Most of the community-based contracts are contracts that are really concrete roads which don’t require the same level of expertise, machinery, and engineering skills like when you are doing an asphaltic road. This is what you call labour-intensive work,” Edghill had told this newspaper.
“The engineers from the Ministry of Public Works will have to work with those communities. It is basically putting in the forms, putting in the palls, getting the levels and pouring concrete of a particular specification, so that we can get the required PSI [pounds per square inch], which is about 3,000 to 4,000, depending on where the road is built,” he explained.
Pointing to areas where the initiative had been rolled out, such as in Albouystown, Buxton, Melanie, Linden and Matthew’s Ridge among others, he said that taxpayers could rest assured that they were getting value for money.
“Are we getting value for money? The answer is, yes! How do I know we are? The entire country can be assured that the Ministry of Public Works has its own lab for testing. So whether it is a concrete or a concrete and asphaltic road… our lab personnel go out and test to ensure that, if it is asphaltic, the required depth of sand, loam, stone, and asphalt is applied. And if it is a concrete road, we do the mix design and we test it after it is also cast. We have not had any problems with that,” he stated.
“It is simple. You tell the contractor, in order for you to get the required mix, you have to mix so much sand, so much stone, so much cement, and your moisture content has to be of a particular standard to do the mix, and we guide them,” he said, explaining the process by which the ministry goes into the communities to assist residents in carrying out the projects.”
Edghill said that in that way, capacity and experience were being built and participants could use that as their experience for other contracts. He reasoned that many skilled people with startup companies are asked for experience when they bid for contracts. He said that if they are not allowed to build capacity as they undertake jobs, then they would remain as not having the experience.
He was, however, quick to point out that the projects are all under $15 million for the budding contractors.
“We have broken up these projects into lots. Some of them are $15 million, $14, $3 million and so on and so forth… all at manageable scales. You are not putting out first-time contractors to go and do a $268 million road or a $300 million project. No! That is not what is happening here. This is starting people out, building their capacity, getting their feet wet. And from their profits, they will be able to start getting machinery and other things to do the middle-scale jobs and eventually the high-scale jobs. I think every Guyanese should be proud of this,” he said.
The minister iterated that the contracts are not awarded in a politically-biased way either. “You go to a community and you invite all the contractors. They come to a meeting. They bring in documents. Those that don’t have all, we guide them in getting their GRA compliance, NIS compliances and so on. From among that pool, we give them the bidding documents for them to put in their proposals. It is evaluated, it receives the no-objections and then awarded. It is the same thing we did in Linden,” he said.
On October 12, contracts were signed with some 673 contractors to carry out the upgrades for roads across the country.
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo at that signing, had highlighted the significance of the projects emphasising that thousands of residents will reap the benefits, according to the Department of Public Information (DPI).
He cast the initiative as an important opportunity for contractors to elevate their lives and grow within the industry.
“You have to sometimes take a chance with new contractors and nurture them along… because we have such a vast amount of work to do and we have limited capacity in some areas,” he was quoted as saying.
The Vice President further explained that while the government could have awarded larger contracts to a single contractor, it was important to expand opportunities to create a wider pool of contractors, the DPI said.
“So, whilst we are creating more opportunities for people, we expect if you get paid you will do a good piece of work,” Jagdeo was quoted as stating, adding that poorly executed projects would not be tolerated.
According to Jagdeo, since resuming office, the government has completed over 4,000 community roads across Guyana with this new initiative promising to continue that trend, DPI said.
Edghill had announced that the contract signings would continue in phases.
The contracts are scheduled for completion by December, as stipulated in the agreements and he warned, “Every man Jack, and every woman Jane has got to finish before December 15.”
Other requirements were outlined for contractors, including mandatory testing of road strength to meet a standard of 4,500 PSI – an essential measure of concrete durability.
Contractors whose work failed to meet this benchmark would be required to redo the project or face contract cancellation without compensation, the DPI said.
To ensure transparency, contractors and engineers are required to familiarise themselves with the local communities before beginning work. Residents will also be engaged in monitoring the projects. Subcontracting or transferring contracts to third parties will lead to immediate disqualification, the release said.
Almost 2,000 new contractors have entered the field since August 2020, DPI added.
