Given the success of small infrastructural projects over the past five years, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) will be focusing on developing a public works programme that benefits small and medium scale contractors.
This is the plan once re-elected to office at the 2025 polls, according to General Secretary of the party, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo.
He noted that recent changes to the contract awarding process – requiring builders to be from the administrative regions where the projects are located, and reserving contracts under $15 million for smaller contractors – have begun to bear fruit.
“Because of that success, we now have to think about the next term in office, how we will continue to empower small and medium scale contractors by developing a public works programme that will be beneficial to the people of Guyana that would allow us to extend these opportunities,” Jagdeo explained at his weekly press conference on Thursday.
“We want all of our people to progress” he added.
Jagdeo said a major focus during its next term in office would be the construction of concrete drains in communities across the country to ensure they are protected from flooding during the rainy season.
These drains, he said, will build “climate-resilient communities” and compliment the road infrastructure being developed.
Referring to his recent visit to Linden, Region Ten, the General Secretary said the contractors in that region alone have grown significantly as a result of the government’s move to ensure equity in the industry.
“Last year, the road programme for contractors in Linden, we had over 500 contractors in that region…and they implemented a programme for about $7 billion and this year, it is about $10 billion with maybe 700 contractors, small contractors who never existed in 2020 and they’re all from Region Ten,” he noted.
This scenario, he indicated, is replicated countrywide.
Jagdeo noted that in the past, these projects would have been executed by a single contractor or a limited pool of contractors.
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