{"id":29802,"date":"2026-05-11T13:19:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T17:19:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/?p=29802"},"modified":"2026-05-11T13:23:03","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T17:23:03","slug":"dr-jagdeo-says-contract-vetting-aimed-at-promoting-fairness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/dr-jagdeo-says-contract-vetting-aimed-at-promoting-fairness\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Jagdeo says contract vetting aimed at strengthening fairness"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n\n

-as government works to expand opportunities for small contractors<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has defended the government\u2019s ongoing contract pre-qualification exercise, saying the process was introduced to strengthen transparency and create wider opportunities for small contractors across Guyana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Jagdeo was at the time speaking on the sidelines of a public engagement, where he noted many persons lodged queries about the award of contracts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Scenes from VP Jagdeo’s Public Day<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Scenes from VP Jagdeo’s Public Day<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Scenes from VP Jagdeo’s Public Day<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Scenes from VP Jagdeo’s Public Day<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Scenes from VP Jagdeo’s Public Day<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Scenes from VP Jagdeo’s Public Day<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Jagdeo said the exercise was specifically designed to allow more Guyanese to benefit from procurement opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe went through a pre-qualification exercise because we wanted to enhance transparency surrounding the award of contracts. We wanted to help more small people get contracts,\u201d the Vice President said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explained that in previous years, contracts valued below $15 million were often awarded without a formal tendering process, as permitted under the Procurement Act, but noted that many persons complained they were unaware of how to access such opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo the best way of getting everyone to know of the process and be part of it was to go through a pre-qualification exercise,\u201d <\/strong>he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Jagdeo disclosed that nearly 12,000 applications were submitted by small contractors from across the country. He noted, however, that the verification process has proven complex due to attempts by some applicants to circumvent the rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn that pre-qualification exercise, we got nearly 12,000 small contractors who submitted documents of pre-qualification. So we\u2019ve been vetting the list with a lot of difficulties,\u201d<\/strong> he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He noted that among the challenges encountered were cases where multiple family members submitted applications through separate companies despite restrictions against that practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome others are big contractors who are trying to get in with the small contractors,\u201d <\/strong>Dr. Jagdeo added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said government officials and technical staff have been working intensively to cleanse the list and ensure only legitimate applicants are approved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have done so on the ground with technical staff, ministerial involvement, hoping to clean up the list of pre-qualified contractors,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Vice President reassures contractors that once legitimately pre-qualified, they would have an opportunity to benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want everyone to know, once you\u2019re pre-qualified legitimately, that over the course of the year we\u2019ll try to get at least one contract each,\u201d<\/strong> he stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He acknowledged frustration among some applicants but noted that contracts could not be awarded simultaneously to thousands of persons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEveryone wants to go in the first round. If they see now that some contracts are being awarded because we have to start at the beginning, they complain they\u2019re left out, but we can\u2019t award 10,000 contracts at the same time,\u201d<\/strong> he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Jagdeo, the broader goal is to build capacity among smaller Guyanese businesses and create long-term economic opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe idea was to help small people to grow. We campaigned on this and we are doing it now,\u201d he said. \u201cWe could have easily done like APNU and the others and give the contracts to a few big people. That\u2019s not our track record. We want to grow a lot of small people.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that contractors in all ten administrative regions are expected to benefit as the exercise continues throughout the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

-as government works to expand opportunities for small contractors Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has defended the government\u2019s ongoing contract pre-qualification exercise, saying the process was introduced to strengthen transparency…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29803,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[361,471,350],"tags":[488,997,370,445,412,405,998],"class_list":["post-29802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-and-economy","category-infrastructural-development","category-news","tag-488","tag-contract-awards","tag-guyana","tag-ministry-of-public-works","tag-ncn-guyana","tag-ncn-news","tag-procurement"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29802"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29811,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29802\/revisions\/29811"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}