A $225,000 program signed into effect on Wednesday is expected to make the local construction industry more competitive internationally over the next 18 months.
Called the “Strengthening of the Bahamas Contractors Association”, the project is funded with a $150,000 grant from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and $75,000 from the Bahamian Contractors Association (BCA). The contract signing ceremony took place at the IDB offices on East Bay Street Wednesday.
The funds will initially allow the BCA to undergo its first comprehensive diagnostic survey and a subsequent training program. BCA President Stephen Wrinkle said that approximately half of the funds are earmarked for training that will improve the standards and enhance the ability of local contractors. Under the survey and training component, he also said the program will educate consumers in an outreach to ‘bridge the gap’ between them and service providers.
The training to upgrade contractor skills is ‘extremely important,’ according to BCA Vice President Godfrey Forbes.
Contractors and their customers can also expect to see the standardization of construction documents as a result of the program. The move should allow for stage payment applications, contracts, and change order forms to be standardized to ensure best standard practices in the industry.
To help with monitoring the program’s success and ensure funds are well spent, a special committee has been formed. “Yesterday we had our first Technical Consultative Committee (TCC) meeting, which was attended by 12 members of various sectors of government and private industry, who will sit on this board to ensure that the funds allocated for this grant are going to be spent wisely and that we will get material and fruitful benefits over the next 18 months,” Wrinkle said.
The BCC plans to take advantage of the expertise, international resources, consultants and experience of the IDB at executing such programs, Wrinkle said, and expressed appreciation for the grant.
