Latest update March 29th, 2024 12:59 AM
Apr 30, 2017 News
By Leonard Gildarie
Times are hard. The indications are that sales have dropped and people are more careful in their
spending. Store owners are reporting that there is less foot traffic.
I have a friend who is in the shoe business. Eight years ago, his business did about $3M average daily in sales. It has fallen significantly today. It appears to have been gradual. He is doing about $400,000 sales daily – not enough to pay the bills – staffers, electricity etc. It is fortunate the family has diversified.
I happened to visit Giftland Mall at least three times in the last few weeks.
The story there without speaking to anyone should be worrying at the very least. The parking lot was largely empty. I rather suspect that quite a few of the cars belong to staffers and businesses that are there. Inside, there were very few persons walking about.
The story is the same on Regent Street. I happen to know that Kaieteur News has been looking at the situation. Save for the Chinese stores which have been pulling the Cuban shoppers in the droves, the complaints are all the same…business is bad. Even a few of the Chinese operators are not happy.
The world is facing a financial downturn now. The region has not been spared.
I saw this coming at least six months ago. Trinidad, Barbados, Suriname, Venezuela and Brazil are but a few. I fear what is happening in the few islands which depend on tourism for their economy. I speak of this situation yet again, as we are faced with some tough choices.
Come next year, we may very well have to reduce the number of critical infrastructural projects that the state normally embarks on, like roads and bridges.
The reasons are simple. We are not collecting as much revenues from our exports as we should. Yet we have to find the foreign exchange to pay for what we are ordering.
The big problem that we have to start fixing now is our dependency on foreign products.
We bring in billions of dollars in items annually – from food, hardware and electronic items, to clothes and machinery. Some of these are critical to the running of the country. These include spare parts, pharmaceuticals and inputs.
The problem that we are facing is that many of these importations seem totally unnecessary.
I am hearing of reports of cabbage and ochro being imported. I don’t believe it, but…
We had pinewood being imported for construction.
Last week, Minister of State Joseph Harmon agreed that there problems with state spending on contracts. For example, dietary supplies for some state facilities would include things like tinned sardine. In Guyana, fresh fish is available. Harmon has a point.
We have to look at ways in which our spending benefits the local economy. We have embarked on a housing drive that will see $5B being expended to build duplexes and small homes for poor families. How much of this is going to the local economy? We have loggers who would dearly love a piece of the pie.
However, it appears that a large chunk of our expenditure has not been paid attention to. Until now. The spotlight has been brought right on the capacity of our engineers working at the various ministries.
In several cases last week, during the public tender openings at the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board, it was noted that bidders were way below what was the engineers’ estimates. There are several conclusions that can be drawn here. It could be our bidders have found a way to reduce costs or the engineers who prepare the tender documents don’t know what they are doing.
We are being told that the prices of materials and other factors are sometimes a year old.
In essence, engineers use prices that were from last year to arrive at their estimates.
I don’t want to paint all of them with one brush. I know quite a few government engineers and they are good folks who are professionals.
We are also being told that there is corruption with the engineers. Many of them are reportedly selling their estimates to contractors who use them to submit bids, which just so happens to be below those figures.
It is imperative that this administrative continuously looks at ways to tighten up on these loopholes and weaknesses we have in our procurement system, as we are losing precious dollars.
Yes, we have a Public Procurement Commission. But it would be pointless to have this when there are inherent problems with how the tenders are being prepared in the first place.
I saw a letter to Kaieteur News from one of the prominent contractors, GAICO, who pointed out that several factors come into play when engineers prepare their estimates. The estimates are supposed to be guides for the respective ministry or agency.
GAICO warned that some contractors deliberately submit low, but realistically cannot finish the project on budget.
According to GAICO, low prices alone are not the problems. The company urged contractors to step up to the plate; stop colluding with some site engineers and Clerk of Works; expose those that are bent on corruption.
Some contractors should also not be greedy and take more work than they can handle.
There should also be more pride and effort in ensuring that taxpayers get value for money.
GAICO, one of the contractors on the East Bank Demerara four-lane extension, believes that Government should move to blacklist companies for poor performance, and be more rigid with its enforcement on project sites. There should also be more random checks at project sites.
I like one of the recommendations of GAICO. The evaluators of tenders should not be known to each other. This would reduce the possibilities of collusion.
Of especial importance for evaluators is the past performance of contractors and their workload. A contractor’s financial capacity is especially important. GAICO hinted that contractors take advance payment to clear personal commitments, thus starving the project for cash. We have some food for thought.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
Mar 29, 2024
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