Ministry of Works to hold seminar for contractors on Nov. 10th.
By Eric Rose
NASSAU, Bahamas – Minister of Public Works and Transport the Hon. Earl Deveaux said Friday that an upcoming Contractors Seminar will inform attendees of, among other things, the procedures they need to know about participating in government contracts.
“New and existing contractors, hopefully, will know a little more about what they need to do to win contracts, manage their contracts and get more work,” Minister Deveaux said.
The seminar is scheduled for Saturday, November 10, 2007, from 8:30 am to 3 p.m., at the Police Conference Centre, East Street North.
Under the theme: “Information for Effective Private-Public Sector Interaction,” the conference seeks to convey the Ministry’s intention to improve the knowledge of those involved in the Bahamian construction industry.
“We will have three panels,” Minister Deveaux said. “One on the proposed Contractors Registration Bill, which will be hosted by the Director of Public Works (Melanie Roach) where we will share information on the proposed Bill and get feedback from the contractors.”
The second panel, he said, will be on the contracting process, where representatives from the private sector, the Department of Immigration and the Ministry will give information and respond to questions about what contractors must know about contracting with the Government.
“We expect that this particular panel will form the bulk of the discussion,” Minister Deveaux added.
The third panel, Minister Deveaux added, will talk about banking, finance and liability insurance issues. Panelists will be from the Bahamas Association of Clearing Banks and the Bahamas General Insurance Association.
“Many of the contractors who propose to work on behalf of the Government will have to have public liability insurance and will need funding,” he said.
Interested persons are asked to register as soon as possible, as numbers are limited to 300.
Forms are available at the Ministry on John F. Kennedy Drive or online at HYPERLINK “http://www.bahamas.gov.bs/publicworks/” www.bahamas.gov.bs/publicworks/ . There is a $30 registration fee; but that will be waived from all Family Island participants.
All persons registering will receive a copy of the “Contractors Manual,” a companion document to the Bahamas Building Code, a copy of the draft Contractors Registration Bill and a ticket for the lunch, which will be served during the seminar.
“We hope that, at the end of the day to improve our database on the contractors,” Minister Deveaux said. “There will be a registration from they will be asked to full out, we will have a wonderful lunch and, hopefully, the information provided on this day will allow the Ministry of Works to update its database so that going forward we can add a greater degree of transparency to the public sector side of contracting.”
“Hopefully, as a result of this exercise, we will get some informed comment to move the Contractors Bill through the passage in Parliament,” he added.
