Mikey Joseph, president of the T&T Contractors Association (TTCA), wants the Finance Act to be amended to allow commercial banks to hold property as assets. He says there are opportunities for joint ventures between contractors and bankers on state projects, but that cannot happen unless the existing legislation is modernised.
“Right now local contractors cannot team up with local banks and go after a public, private sector partnership (PPP). The reason for that is the legislation governing the Finance Act does not allow banks to hold property as part of their assets. So they need to change the law so that banks could hold property,” he said.
Joseph and his executive also want Prime Minister Keith Rowley to give local contractors priority over foreign developers. He said that could bolster the industry and create employment opportunities.
“What we would really like to see is good governance as a standard. I think we all expect that the Honourable Dr Keith Rowley will stand for high standards and good ethical, moral, professional and other conduct in all areas of governance, and his state boards and permanent secretaries, everybody, would be encouraged to do the right thing.
“If that happens, what will happen is probably, about 70 per cent of our problems will evaporate.”
To ensure local contractors abide by international best practices, Joseph said the TTCA wants the state to introduce systems for their registering and licensing.
“Government was the largest employer, the largest player in the sector. They have to drive it because it’s not like the energy sector where they could have created their own system and say if you don’t have this qualification, you can’t work for us,” he said.
“We would also like to see the government going back to forecasting what their intentions are so as an industry, we can prepare by identifying the resources necessary, identifying the skill sets necessary, train our people and be ready to be competitive from the stage of tenders straight down to the stage of delivery of the project. The construction industry could really become competitive, a well-oiled engine of the economy.”