The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamian Contractors Association (BCA) yesterday said it was pushing for internationally-recognised certification for small/medium-sized firms, which make up 80-90 per cent of the industry.

Godfrey Forbes, the BCA’s president, said the move would help bring many ]small/medium seized contractors “up to scratch”.

The BCA plans to hold a contractor certification course at month’s end as part of the ‘Strengthening of the BCA’ project made possible by a $225,000 grant, $150,000 of which came via the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and $75,000 from the BCA.

“The course is geared basically towards smaller contractors, the Level I contractors. I think that that is where there is a greater lack of accountability when it comes to productivity,” said Mr Forbes.

The upcoming certification course is aimed at addressing issues such as project administration, contract negotiations and financing, project tendering, estimating and budgeting and contract close out.

“What you may find with a lot of the smaller contractors is that they go ahead and conduct their business, but not in the formal business fashion,” Mr Forbes said.

“There is a lack of training on how to conduct their business, and the customer is left wanting. They get the short end of the stick and, in the end, will accuse the contractor of taking them for a ride. That is how you get a lot of the negative stigma attached to the local contractors.

“There are smaller contractors who have basically had on-the-job training, and few who have actually studied the trade and are certified, but when it comes to the business aspects of being a contractor they have little knowledge or training.

“At the end of the day that individual may have used these skills to render a service, but you could have an issue where the owner or customer was not quoted the right price for the job they wanted,” said Mr Forbes.

“There is often a disconnect between what the owner believes they should be getting and what the contractor believes he should be doing. We have seen this disconnect, and usually the contractors end up getting the negative labels.

“With the right formal training the contractor would be able to appraise the customer from the beginning, go over the drawings, document everything and both parties can say at the end of the day this is what we discussed.

“When it comes to construction, never leave anything to word of mouth. It’s difficult to get an uninformed customer to understand what you did at the end of the day.”