The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Government’s failure to advance long-awaited legislation shows it is not interested in protecting the construction industry for Bahamians, the Bahamian Contractors Association’s (BCA) president said yesterday.

Godfrey Forbes told Tribune Business that he had been unable to discover the Contractors Bill’s fate, or the Government’s intentions towards it, despite sending numerous e-mails to Deputy Prime Minister Philip Davis’s office from earlier this year.

Describing the Bill as “extremely important”, Mr Forbes said it would protect both consumers and legitimate Bahamian contractors, while also safeguarding the latter against foreign companies operating illegally in this nation.

“We need this Contractors Bill to be addressed,” Mr Forbes told Tribune Business. “We’ve not heard anything from the Deputy Prime Minister since our last meeting with him which, if I’m not mistaken, was either in the early part of this year or late last year.

“We did what he asked us to do, and the time has long been spent for a decision to be made and some action taken to advance the Contractors Bill.”

“Up to this point, I’ve not been able to any update and what action is to be taken going forward,” Mr Forbes added.

“I’ve tried to make contact with his [the Deputy Prime Minister’s] office on three-four occasions, and up to this time I’ve not had any response to my efforts. I might have to send an official letter and see if I get a response to that.”

Efforts to pass the Contractors Bill have now spanned three administrations, two of PLP vintage and one FNM, yet the legislation appears to be no closer to making it on to a crowded Cabinet agenda and being taken to Parliament.

The Bill, if passed, would introduce a system of licensing and self-regulation, where Bahamian contractors would be certified according to their qualifications and scale/scope of work they are capable of undertaking.

It also includes provisions giving Bahamian consumers means of redress against shoddy workmanship and other frequent complaints made about Bahamian contractors.

The Bahamian construction industry is the last professional trade in this nation to lack the ability to self-regulate, with other professions such as engineers and architects all possessing legislation that allows them to do this.

“The Bill is extremely important,” Mr Forbes added. “We need the entire industry to be regulated and looked at overall.

“We also need some laws and rules to safeguard the industry for Bahamians. We as Bahamians, at least the powers that be, seem not to have the interests of Bahamian contractors totally met.”

The BCA chief referred to both foreign developers coming in with their own contractors, and overseas firms looking to establish businesses in the Bahamas without permission, as threats to the sector.

“It [the Government] does not seem to be interested to preserve that business and totally protect the industry for Bahamians,” Mr Forbes told Tribune Business.

“That’s sad, and we need to look at this more closely. Some attention needs to be paid to the construction industry in this country, and we need to go ahead and put some effort into regulating the entire industry.

“We need to look at that more closely, and put efforts into making sure that happens and that the industry is totally protected for Bahamians.”

Tribune Business revealed earlier this year how Mr Forbes was supported by Renward Wells, former Ministry of Works parliamentary secretary, over assertions that the Bahamas Agricultural and Marine Sciences Institute (BAMSI) insurance ‘debacle’ would never have happened had the Contractors Bill been brought into law.

Mr Wells, an engineer by profession, told the House of Assembly earlier this year: “The Contractor’s Bill is the last plank, the last part of closing the circle of licensing the entire built environment in this country,” said Mr Wells.

“The architects are licensed, the engineers are licensed and the next group of persons who must be licensed are the contractors.

“I believe and know that if the industry was licensed, the BAMSI insurance debacle would not have happened because it would have been a part of the requirements for every licensed contractor to have his or her own insurance, as it is for every architect, as it is for every engineer.”

A 2011 draft of the Contractors Bill, which the BCA has long campaigned for, stipulates that before providing construction services “a licensed contractor or licensed contracting firm must provide to the client a certificate of insurance, evidencing Contractors All-Risk Insurance and public liability insurance of $1 million”.

Mr Wells’ remarks echoed those of Mr Forbes and his BCA presidential predecessor, Stephen Wrinkle, who told Tribune Business earlier this year that taxpayers would not be exposed to almost $3 million in extra costs as a result of the BAMSI fire if the Government had ended the construction industry’s 15-year wait for legislation to regulate it.

They added that the proposed Contractors Bill would prevent companies from being licensed/registered to legally provide construction services if they did not have Contractors All-Risk Insurance (CAR) in place.