In an interview with the Guardian last week, Robert Myers, chairman of the Bahamian Contractors Association said that presently, consumers are extremely vulnerable to being taken advantage of by unscrupulous contractors because of the lack of proper legislation governing the industry.
“At the moment anybody can take a deposit and run off and there is no recourse except for the courts and we know what the problems are there,” he declared.
Even though one “victim” may receive compensation, according to Mr. Myers, “There is nothing to pull from that guy to stop him from doing it again.”
The Bahamian General Contractors Association developed draft legislation for a contractor’s Bill, specifying requirements for obtaining relevant licences.
It was said that this would assist in bringing Bahamian contractors to the level of Canadian and American contractors. The association submitted the draft legislation to the Ministry of Works and Utilities earlier this year and are currently awaiting a response.
Efforts to contact the MOW to determine the current status of the proposed legislation were unsucessful.
Mr. Myers said that with the country facing globalization and impending trade negotiations that would open the economy to outside competition there was an urgent need for regulation of the industry.
Warning of the possibility of foreign individuals coming in and displacing indigenous Bahamian practitioners, he said, “If we don’t have some regulations before those agreements come into effect…you can imagine what can happen at that point.”
Mr. Myers said the association is also in the process of establishing industry exams for the various trades in the industry, and to this end the association is currently working with the College of The Bahamas and The Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute to establish a curriculum that would provide preparation for the industry exams.
The association has also obtained the services of a licensed Floridian-Bahamian Engineering Contractor, Robyn Ogilvie, to head up its grades and standards committee.
According to Mr. Myers, the education courses currently available at BTVI are not sufficient to bring industry participants up to the required standards. “At the moment we’re not producing anything in that realm,” he said.
However, the fact that persons would become certified would not automatically translate into a vast number of separate contracting organizations, he said, as “These persons can be absorbed into existing operations.”
By Martella Matthews, The Nassau Guardian
