Minister within the Ministry of Public Works, Mandalall Ramraj has indicated that more than 12,000 small and medium-size contractors benefited from contracts from the Works Ministry last year, as it sought to build capacity among young contractors to do critical works across the country.

Speaking during the 2026 Budget debates, Ramraj said some medium-size contractors got contracts for as much as $100m.

“In 2025, under the Ministry of Public Works, 10, 868 small contractors benefited from contracts from $14M and up, while 1,600 medium size contractors got contracts ranging from $14M to $100M. Mr. Speakers, we are talking about 12,000 contractors, these are small people who are benefiting from the government and this is only from Public Works,” Ramraj told the debate.

He said the aim was to ensure that in every community where government projects are executed, progress is felt directly by those who live in the communities.

He said while there has been lots of criticism about the Government’s infrastructure push and new contractors, there has been the creation of more business activities and improved livelihoods for families,

“Mr. Speaker, take for instance in Sophia, all those road contracts were given to contractors in Sophia, same thing across the country, villages by villages we are empowering our communities, this is the legacy of the PPPC government,” the Minister noted.

Parliamentarian for the APNU Saiku Andrews in his budget presentation said the Budget is largely an infrastructure Budget. He said while he is not opposed to development, more focus should have been placed on other areas as well, since he does not believe that government gets value for money for its infrastructure projects.

 “This budget presented in this house is clearly about sand, stone and cement, 50% of this budget goes to capital expenditure. Mr. Speaker, I am not here to oppose vision, I am not here to oppose transformation, as a matter of fact, I welcome transformation, and the new Bharrat Jagdeo river bridge is just a replacement of a true piece of infrastructure, but Mr. Speaker, this budget speaks a lot about transformational infrastructure, but transformational infrastructure must deliver value for money,” Andrews stated.

Andrews believes that true transformational infrastructural projects have always been delivered by PNC/R governments citing the Demerara River Bridge and the Linden Soesdyke highway.

“Mr. Speaker, at the end of the end, we in the PNC has a record of delivering truly transformational infrastructure. Mr. Speaker, transformational infrastructure, loaded with benefits for the citizens was delivered in 1978 when LFS Burnham had the vision to link Soesdyke and Linden—a 72km highway stood the test of time, for 57 years before this government decided it needed some form of significant upgrade,” Andrews said.

He said if the Government is serious about development, it must ensure that it has strict project monitoring in place to safeguard taxpayers’ money.

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