The Tribune

By Neil Hartnell

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamian Contractors Association’s (BCA) president says he believes successive administrations do not want to “professionalise” the industry because it would create an obstacle to directing “millions of dollars” in construction contacts to their political supporters.

Leonard Sands voiced his “frustration”, and that of the BCA and the wider construction industry, over the Government’s continued failure to form the Construction Contractors Board and allow the sector to become the last in The Bahamas to self-regulate the profession and affairs.

Confirming that Prime Minister Philip Davis KC had yet to follow through on his early August 2025 pledge to the BCA to form the Board by early September, despite being provided with industry recommendations for its members, he added that the continued delay sends a concerning message to young Bahamians entering the construction industry that there qualifications are not valued.

And, noting it is now almost a decade since the Construction Contractors Act was passed into law, Mr Sands said the wait for its enforcement remains hostage to the Board’s appointment. The BCA chief said the benefits of self-regulation, and proper licensing and upholding professional standards, have been demonstrated by the growth in Bahamian architects and engineers since they were granted what contractors have long sought.

“We haven’t moved any place in the last ten years,” Mr Sands told this newspaper. “It’s been in the same place for the last ten years. They’ve had the names for the last ten years. They’re [the Government] not willing to do it. I just wish they could say that so people could live their lives. I’m not playing this game any more. It is what it is….

“On the one hand, we say we are leading the Caribbean, but we cannot get the Board appointed and get out of the way. We have to still be asking: Are we going to do this? We are the one profession that doesn’t have this. It goes to show that, in this country, the Government must assume that construction people don’t have real jobs.”

The Board’s role would be to oversee the licensing and registration of Bahamian contractors and construction trades persons according to their abilities and the scale of projects and work they are able to perform. It would also enforce the Construction Contractors Act, which was passed into law almost a decade ago in 2016, imposing penalties and sanctions on those found guilty of misconduct and defective work.

However, the Act itself has never been enforced due to the failure to appoint the Board. This has left construction as the last major Bahamian profession without self-regulatory powers, and Mr Sands suggested that this sends the signal that “the industry doesn’t matter apart from the tens of millions of dollars that come into this country from some of the same investors that say we are not professional”.

Asserting that the Prime Minister has yet to follow through with the Board’s appointment in the timeline promised, despite being provided with the names of proposed members by the Association, the BCA chief said Mr Davis - in his capacity as deputy prime minister and minister of works in the Christie administration - had been the minister responsible for bringing the Act to Parliament and shepherding it through the legislative process.

“He gave us a commitment with the names and set out an implementation timeline but didn’t do it,” Mr Sands said. “The person who brought this legislation to Parliament has the highest office in the land, but appears unable and unwilling to make this the law of the land.

“It would cost the Government nothing to do this. Nothing. I’m frustrated, we are all frustrated in the BCA. We keep fighting, fighting. It’s the men in Parliament that stop it and, if they have the guts to say why the country is not progressing, then tell us.

“I’m just speaking for the future of the industry. It won’t matter if you want to get professional status because the Government doesn’t want that. We are wasting our time to develop them; we are wasting time to develop young people,” the BCA chief warned.

“My personal belief is that the fear of having it [construction] grow is that the Government uses it as a way to ensure their supporters have access to millions of dollars. If we don’t want change, keep things as they are. If want it to change, make it professional.”

Mr Sands said related professions, such as architects and engineers, have already shown the benefits of licensing and self-regulation. “Pull up the data,” he argued. “Look at what happened when we licensed everybody in our country. It expanded.

“We have hundreds of architects, we have hundreds of engineers. Everything grows. You cannot tell me I’m wrong. The industry grows with licensing. The data proves it. Every industry in our country grows when it’s licensed. No industry retarded after it was licensed. Why would construction be any different? Check those facts.”

Mr Sands, speaking out after The Bahamas last year breached the $1bn mark in the value of new construction permits issued, as their collective value increased by $305m compared to 2023, reiterated that the industry is he third, if not the second, “pillar” of the Bahamian economy.

The Bahamas National Statistical Institute (BNSI), drawing on data from the Ministry of Works, Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA), Family Island administrators and local government revealed that the value of new construction permits issued increased by around one-third - from $915.566m to $1.22bn in 2024.

The licensing and self-regulatory system ushered in by the Construction Contractors Board’s approval should eventually result in increased business for Bahamian contractors as developers - both local and foreign - will know which companies and individuals can perform certain jobs competently based on the scale and type of work they are certified for.

It will also will provide Bahamians with a more accessible avenue for redressing grievances with contractors. The Board will have the power to fine and discipline rogue contractors, and even bring them before the courts, its regulatory authority being the construction sector’s equivalent of the Bahamas Bar Council or Medical Council.

The BCA has the ability to submit the names of six Board members, with a further three appointed by the minister responsible for the construction industry on its advice. The final member of the ten-person Board will be the director of public works.

However, even with the Board’s appointment self-regulation will take time to implement due to the ‘grandfathering in’ period for existing contractors and trades persons to become licensed and registered under the new system it introduces.

The initial “grandfathering” period expired two years after the Act was passed in 2016, which would have been 2018. This now has to be reset, with the two-year period - at earliest - now starting in 2026 and running until 2028.