Difficult times Local contractors lament industry’s ‘Chinese curse’
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PRESIDENT of the Trinidad and Tobago Contractors Association (TTCA), Mickey Joseph, described the difficulties faced by local contractors in securing contracts for large projects as being part of a ’Chinese curse.’ Joseph made the statement on Saturday night at the Association’s Contractor of the Year Gala Banquet and Awards ceremony at the grand ballroom of the Hilton Trinidad St Ann’s. Joseph, in his opening address, said: ’We meet this evening at an interesting and testing time for the construction industry in Trinidad and Tobago. And I use the term interesting in the sense of the Chinese curse…. Not that I am implying that the Chinese are a curse for our industry or country, but as our newspaper headlines show us daily, Trinidad and Tobago is a very interesting place indeed, and one of the most interesting aspects for the past year has been the difficulties faced by local contractors and the construction industry.’ He went on to say that because of the economic downturn and the difficulties in securing contracts, local contractors had to do more long-term planning in order to survive in the short-term. ’Do we decide to retrench employees or do we invest in retraining them so they can help us achieve greater returns during the lean times and equip us to grasp the opportunities which will come when the downturn ends?’ he asked. Joseph also accused the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (UDeCOTT), of not being a reputable contracting company. ’I think it is safe to say that over the past few months, the general public has learned more about our business than they ever knew, and more than they probably wanted to know. People now have more familiarity with procurement practices, design-and-build contracts, soil suitability, use of steel and so on. Unfortunately they have learned about these things mostly by reading about the practices of UDeCOTT. And while it may be useful to learn something by being told what not to do as contractors, we want people to know that what UDeCOTT does is not what reputable contractors do,’ he said. ’Now that the Uff Commission of Enquiry has narrowly escaped being derailed by UDeCOTT, the Trinidad and Tobago Contractors Association has a particular duty to ensure that this enquiry not only complete its mandate, but does so in a way that ensures that, if and when court action takes place as a result of evidence presented before the Commission, the interests of the people of Trinidad and Tobago will be served. But as individual contractors, we ourselves have not done all that we could do. For example the Commission requested that the Association provide data on monies owed to contractors by the Government, but when we asked members to provide the financial data, even though their details would have been confidential, less than ten per cent responded,’ he said. The contract for construction of the newly built $480 million Academy for the Performing Arts in Port of Spain, was awarded to the Shanghai Construction Group by the Government, by-passing local contractors. Construction on the $500 million Scarborough Hospital which is due for opening in May of 2010, was originally awarded to local contractors, but was later handed over to China Railway Construction Group. Also, the contract for the 15,000-capacity Queen’s Park Savannah Carnival Centre which Manning said is the next project on Government’s development agenda will also be awarded to Chinese contractors. At Saturday’s ceremony three contracting companies were awarded the title - Contractor of the Year - in three different categories. The Captain Signal Construction Company was awarded for civil engineering, while NH International was awarded for building construction. Weather Shield Systems Limited was given the award for speciality and the Pioneer award went to Tracmac Engineering Limited.(Trinidad Express) |
