Jagdeo says gov’t tightening checks as thousands seek small contracts

Hundreds of Guyanese gathered at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre on Monday as Vice President Dr. Bharat Jagdeo led a ministerial outreach, where he addressed concerns surrounding the government’s small contractors programme and ongoing efforts to verify thousands of applicants seeking public contracts.

Speaking to reporters at the outreach, Jagdeo said many of the persons attending were seeking information about government contracts valued at $15 million and below. This is a programme the administration designed to create more opportunities for small contractors across the country.

“A lot of people have come here maybe to talk about contracts… they want a contract,” Jagdeo said.

The Vice President explained that the government introduced a public pre-qualification exercise to ensure broader participation in the award of small contracts without the formal tendering process required for larger projects.

According to Jagdeo, close to 12,000 persons submitted applications during the exercise, prompting an extensive verification process involving technical staff and ministers.

“We got nearly 12,000 small contractors who submitted documents for pre-qualification,” he stated, while noting that the government encountered several irregularities during the review process.

“You have some people where family members might have four different companies, and we prohibited that in the pre-qualification. Some others might have been big contractors trying to get in with the small contractors,” Jagdeo said.

He added that the administration has been conducting ground verification exercises to “clean up the list” and ensure that legitimate small contractors benefit from the initiative.

Jagdeo said the government aims to distribute opportunities across all ten regions and avoid concentrating contracts among a small group of established contractors.

“We could easily have done like before and given contracts to a few big people,” he said. “The idea was to help small people to grow.”

His comments come days after the government announced a suspension of Phase One of contract awards in Region Four to allow for additional checks and verification following complaints raised during the distribution process.

In a statement issued Saturday, the government said the nationwide pre-qualification exercise — which ran from March 2 to April 6 — was intended to enhance transparency, fairness, and accountability in the awarding of contracts valued at $15 million and below.

The administration also said the review process uncovered issues, including duplicate submissions and multiple companies linked to the same household.

Jagdeo told reporters Monday that while some applicants may feel frustrated by delays, the government remains committed to ensuring equal access to procurement opportunities.

“Over the course of the year, we’ll try to get at least one contract each,” he said, referring to qualified small contractors.

In addition to contract-related concerns, residents attending the outreach also raised issues relating to drainage, garbage collection, street lighting, housing, cash grants, and insurance matters.