The Builders and Contractors Association of Dominica is lamenting that the government is sidetracking them to give lucrative contracts to foreigners. President of the association, Anthony Leblanc, with other members of the association is pleading with the government to give them the needed support to enable them qualify for sustainable projects.
Leblanc cited SRO No. 15 of 2020 as categorizing construction services as essential in Dominica, and stated that the industry must be encouraged to perform better in the light of numerous construction services awaiting assignment in the country.
He lamented a situation where numerous contractors are edged out of bidding for lucrative contracts because they failed to execute contracts worth $5 million in the last three years. He said sometimes, up to three construction companies must team together to bid for a contract so that their collective revenues in the preceeding years could qualify them to place worthy bids.
“If you cannot show that you have done $5 million of work in the past three years for example, you cannot tender for a $4 million job,” Leblanc said. “A consortium of three of us struggles to meet the turnover requirement which we could have met independently 5-8 years ago. It means that we are losing opportunities which are going to foreign firms and the country is not being developed.”
According to him, several contractors are not able to bid for certain jobs they were eligible to bid for five years ago because their turnover has declined of late, and this is not impacting well on the local industry. He blamed the government for muzzling local contractors where they could have stimulated growth for them.
“There have been serious issues with market access opportunity from a government procurement perspective,” he said. “Construction is not one of the areas given fiscal incentive for whatever reason.”
Leblanc pleaded with the government to provide sectoral support for Dominican builders and contractors so that they can take advantage of construction opportunities and increase exports for the industry.
This article is copyright © 2020 DOM767
