The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

While the response had not been poor, the Bahamian Contractors Association’s (BCA) president admitted he was a bit disappointed over how many industry participants had taken advantage it certification course,

Confirming that the BCA was still hoping to certify at least 200 contractors, Godfrey Forbes said: “We’re trying to get about 200 in total. We had talked about trying to train as many as 400 if the demand was really there.”

The Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute (BTVI) and the BCA have teamed up to offer the two-week course, which began in April. The contractor certification course is part of the ‘Strengthening of the BCA’ project, made possible by a $150,000 grant from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), plus $75,000 from the BCA.

The programme certifies practicing contractors with the Building Contractors Level 1 and Level 3 certification.

“I wouldn’t say the response has been great because I am a bit disappointed in the numbers,” Mr Forbes said. “We were really expecting a much more significant response from the general contracting body, especially the smaller contractors.

“As it is right now we are basically trying to meet our target that we are obligated to meet, based on the agreement that we have with the IDB. That is ongoing and we anticipate that it will all be completed by the end of September. We have to have everything completed for October.

“We are basically trying to get approximately 20-plus persons in a class which runs for two weeks, and that’s like three days out of the week for two weeks. We have a class right now that has around 12 or 13 persons in,” he added.

“It’s basically not as good as we had anticipated it would be. It’s just that the general response has been a little on the average side. I wouldn’t say it’s poor. We hope to reach out to those who truly need this training and, hopefully, they will come into the classroom and take advantage of the information being made available.”

“We started back in April and I think we have had, I would say, about five classes so far, I think. The first week we had two classes; both of those were oversubscribed. We had in excess of 40 persons who basically dealt with those first two classes. Since then the numbers have just been dropping off.”

The certification course is aimed at addressing issues such as project administration, contract negotiations and financing, project tendering, estimating, budgeting and contract close out.