The Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill, has issued a warning to contractors who do shoddy road works that they will be blocked from consideration for future projects.

The Works Ministry has been facing criticism countrywide over many of the roadworks being done by overnight contractors. In some cases, the works have been left incomplete.

After inspecting a number of roadworks in Linden yesterday, the Minister said it would be unfair to continue giving contracts to contractors who simply cannot deliver good work.

“And only those that perform well, could be considered to continue because you can’t give me bad work and then come back to say you need more work, to do what, to give me more bad work? I have seen a couple of places where the quality of work we are not going to accept,” Mr. Edghill stated.

He said the Government will ensure that it gets value for money and that there is compliance with contract specifications, noting that the awarding of road contracts is not money making ventures for contractors, but rather, it is to ensure that citizens’ lives are improved.

“’We are not doing these roads so that people can make money, we are doing these roads so that beneficiary which are the people can benefit from it, and people are not going to make money and put us at conflict with people, we are going to resolve the dissatisfaction but it will come out of the contract sum, so I am making it known again, we have to ensure that we get value for money and compliance,” Mr. Edghill stated.

Additionaly, the Works Minister said additional action will be taken to punish contractors who produce poor work. He threatened the withholding of payments.

“We will not pay for sloppy work, we will not pay for works that are not acceptable, all these concrete roads must achieve a PSI of 4500, these roads are being tested by our labs and I have said to our engineers and clerk of work, if you sign off on projects that are not of good quality you are going to face the consequences,” the Minister said.

Almost 500 roads across the country were slated for completion at the end of March, and according to the Works Minister, many of those roads are now completed while others are at different stages.

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