Contractors Association to meet Small Business Bureau on 20% of state contracts

President of the General Contractors Association of Guyana Neil Cort Rogers

The Small Business Bureau (SBB) can anticipate a demarche from local contractors early in the new year in an effort to take advantage of the provision in the Small Business Act that allows small businesses registered with the Bureau to access twenty per cent of government contracts to undertake jobs valued at under thirty million dollars. This was disclosed by President of the General Contractors Association of Guyana (GCAG) Neil Cort-Rogers. 

 In a telephone interview on Monday with Stabroek Business, Cort-Rogers said that it was his intention to engage the authorities early in 2019 with a view to securing clarity on the clause in the Small Business Act that affords small businesses certain concessions “and to determine exactly what this could mean for small contractors”.

At a media briefing last week, Chief Executive Officer of the SBB Dr Lowell Porter said in response to a question posed by the Stabroek Business that the 20% concession was open to business enterprises in the construction field. There are, however, conditions attached to accessing the facility that have to do with the bona fides of the firm tendering for a contract including whether or not they possess the ability to deliver to the expectations of the Government of Guyana.