President of the Contractors Association Mikey Joseph does not expect the construction sector to improve in 2011. He was replying to questions from the media on if the sector would improve because of the Government projects planned for 2011. "The short answer to that is no. The highway project as conceptualised cannot generate the levels of activity to bring stability to the industry. We have two major players that could dominate all that is required. What is required to stimulate the industry is to have more building projects going.
The manufacturers would not be able to supply much to a highway construction project. As we speak we have over 500,000 tonnes of aggregate parked up at National Quarries. Even that has not impacted much," he said. He said this at a press conference on Wednesday at Abel Building Solutions (ABS) head office, Mount Hope. ABS, a member of the ANSA McAl Group, called the news conference to launch the Caribbean Construction Award (CCA) to be held on March 21. The award ceremony will recognise regional excellence in the industries of architecture, engineering and construction.
"The Government needs to deal with developing projects that would allow contractors other than the civil infrastructure people to start working if there is to be any turnaround," he said. He added that the payment of outstanding monies owed to contractors would stimulate the industry. "Right now this amount is about $1.2 billion. If you all do the math you would see that $1.5 billion was in arrears and now it's down. It's very sluggish but you see something happening," he said. When questioned about the possibility of favouritism in Government contracts and the "two major players" he spoke about, he said he did not see any favouritism.
"There is no indication of favouritism with a politician visiting the facilities of anyone, be it a manufacturer or a contractor. However, some of the comments reported in the papers would have been of concern that a politician may want to take active part in the pre-qualification of a contractor and that would be my concern. Politicians should not get involved in the pre-qualification or tendering processes in my view.
"Other than that, I see no problem in them visiting any institutions or making any complimentary or derogatory statements if he so chooses," he said.
Nicholas Mouttet, managing director of ABS said that the Government needs to kick start the sector by completing unfinished projects in addition to the ones they promised to start. "There are dozens of projects around the country that are in various stages of completion and needs to be completed irregardless of what investigations will take place or plans to take place in terms of what transpired in the past. Those are opportunities to engage the construction sector and get them busy," he said.