Saying it cannot compete with salaries offered in the private sector, the Ministry of Public Infrastructure has reported a shortage of needed engineers, which it has linked to delays in the implementation of several projects.
“While we do have tremendous capacity here, we are finding it difficult to recruit qualified engineers, even graduate engineers, at the current Public Service commission Salaries, which for a graduate engineer is $80, 000,” Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson told a press conference on Thursday.
The minister cited Region Eight as an example and said that although advertisements were done twice for the posts of engineers there, only one has been hired.
As a result of the situation, he said the ministry’s current crop of engineers would have to periodically visit and manage projects throughout the regions, thereby affecting timelines.
“That obviously impacts on our delivery schedule because obviously each project that you do in the ministry, you would have to assign an engineer to it… we have identified [that] there is first, in the ministry, an issue of capacity, in the sense that we do not have the capacity to execute as many projects as possible. It is a matter which we are addressing,” Patterson said.
“We are not burying our head in the sand and saying that everything is absolutely perfect in the ministry. Within the next three months I will be seeking to address that so that when Budget 2017 is ready, we can address and resolve the identifiable issues,” he added.
‘Contractors spread thin’
The ministry would also be meeting with the private sector to discuss and address the issue of local contractors who bid for multiple contracts, collect the mobilisation fees but then delay in commencing works. “Daily, you would hear about contractors complaining about the award of contracts or them being able to access contacts and so forth. Several contracts would have been awarded to contractors and would have received our mobilisation but no physical presence is there on site. When we check, they have more than one contract, they have a limited source of equipment and are spread thin but they continue to bid. I was particularly disturbed about the Linden-Lethem trail works that have been tendered out and are yet to commence,” Patterson noted, while also pointing out that another rainy season will soon be upon us.
He said while he recognises that there are no laws to stop a person from bidding for multiple projects, them not completing them is a hindrance to not only the persons benefitting from the works but the overall budgetary plans of the ministry.
Altogether, the minister informed that up to August 31 this year, only $11B of the $24B budgeted for capital works under the Public Sector Investment Programme has been spent.
“We have several foreign funded projects, which, unfortunately, to date, have not moved as fast as we would have liked or budgeted. Primarily, the PUUP [Power Utility Upgrade Pro-gramme] under the IDB, that was to expend $2B. Unfortunately, we would have only expended about four or five percent of that,” he noted.
Patterson also informed that the ministry would seek additional funds for the Cheddi Jagan International Airport expansion project. “No doubt we have to go for a supplementary for the balance of the quarter,” he said as he explained that the ministry is pushing the contractor to ensure it is completed by December 31, 2017 because after then the country would begin repayment on the loan for the project.
