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.