The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

THE Government’s plan to kickstart its housing programme will be a “breath of fresh air” for many small and medium-sized contractors , the Bahamian Contractors Association’s (BCA) president said yesterday.

Godfrey Forbes said: “The industry right now is basically dominated by the smaller contractors, the ones who deal with the single family homes and such.

“With no activity going on in that area of the industry for some time, it has placed a tremendous strain on those contractors, and for them now having this programme that the Government is launching is definitely going to be a breath of fresh air.”

The Government plans to construct more than 120 homes through its national housing programme via a $10 million initial investment, having already received over 600 applications for new homes.

Construction should begin in 30 days with build out over a 12-month period on New Providence, Grand Bahama and, possibly, Abaco and San Salvador.

While the Government’s housing programme has been plagued by shoddy workmanship over the years, the Chistie administration plans to remedy this by hiring private inspectors with adequate professional indemnity insurance, who will sign off on each of the five stages of the construction process.

The revived housing programme also calls for a project manager to be engaged to oversee the entire construction build out.

Mr Forbes said that while these were good moves by the Government, a comprehensive change in the way many contractors operate was necessary.

“You have many persons who are simply accustomed to doing work a certain way, and to a certain standard, and they’re going to have a hard time dealing with inspectors who say that they can’t get paid after they have done so much work because it hasn’t met a certain standard,” he added.

The BCA has launched an aggressive training programme designed to certify up to 400 Bahamian contractors.

Meanwhile, Mr Forbes said the Contractor’s Bill was still very much in “limbo”.

The Bill seeks greater regulation of the construction industry to protect both contractors and consumers. Currently, there is no official industry-wide regulation. The Contractors Bill would ensure the licensing, regulation and control of the industry.

“The Contractors Bill is still very much in limbo,” the BCA president said yesterday.

“We met with the Attorney General in March of this year, and since then we met with the head of the Electrical Union. There is a bit of a hiccup because of the fact that they already have legislation, and some things that we have in our Contractors Bills overlaps with theirs.

“We are trying to get them to look at agreeing to relax some of their positions they have as it relates to their aspect of it, and we would just go ahead and have that put under our Bill so everything would be under one umbrella.

“I have not had any communication on what decision the electrical contractors have made as yet. Once we get that we can see exactly where we are headed as it reletes to the Bill, even if it means making some adjustments whereby the electrical contractors will not directly come under the Bill.”