THE National Procurement and Tendering Administration Board (NPTAB) evaluators are likely to receive a pay hike.
Currently, the evaluators, who review bids ranging into the millions, are paid $3,000 per bid, but according to Board Chairman Berkley Wickham, this fee will soon be increased. However, he was unable to give specifics. “I have spoken to the minister about it. It will be raised. I am sure it will be raised,” Wickham assured reporters on Thursday on the sideline of an orientation for potential evaluators. The orientation was organised by the NPTAB, Ministry of Finance.
However, he made it clear that becoming an evaluator should not be about the money. “People can be influenced regardless of what they are paid. The money that is being paid, is not being paid to…ascertain people’s honesty, it is just to defray any expenses they may have,” he said.
The NPTAB Chairman added, “It is not based on how much you get, it is based on your integrity and your willingness to participate in something worthwhile.”
Meanwhile, during the opening ceremony of the orientation, Wickham emphasised that the tenets of Guyana’s public procurement system must be upheld, noting that the country’s performance in this area has national and international implications.
The key principles that govern the process of evaluation of tenders are: non-discrimination, equal treatment, transparency and confidentiality.
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Reforming the public procurement process within the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) could allow governments to better manage the use of scarce public funds. Such reforms also have the potential to contribute to inclusive growth by encouraging the participation of small- and medium-sized local businesses. However, many OECS countries have not yet fully implemented the necessary measures to foster reform, which has sometimes led to delays in project implementation and optimum value for money outcomes not being realised.
From June 20 to 21, 2017, the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) hosted a workshop to support and advance public procurement reform in the OECS, at its headquarters in Barbados. The workshop provided a forum for representatives from OECS countries, the OECS Commission and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to review the current state of public procurement and to facilitate agreement on a unified approach to procurement reform within the OECS.
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Minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Dr Horace Chang has assured the small business sector that the Government remains committed to a new procurement process to benefit Micro, Small and Medium-size Enterprises (MSME).
“Importantly this Government is facilitating a new procurement process that will set aside a proportion of government contracts for MSMEs,” Dr Chang told last Wednesday’s MSMEs’ Caribbean conference, hosted by the Small Business Association of Jamaica (SBAJ) at the Hilton Rose Hall hotel in Montego Bay. Representatives from at least 18 Caribbean countries attended the conference.
The Government had indicated last year that recommendations in relation to the Procurement Offset Regulations would be expanded to include the private sector and enable greater participation of MSMEs in public procurement.
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At some point, regardless of whether you work in an organisation or for yourself, there is the dilemma of trying to figure out how much to charge for your services. Charge too high and you might price yourself out of the market and lose the business. Charge too low, and you are leaving money on the table and potentially painting yourself into a corner, from which it can be difficult to recover.
Depending on your field or specialty, your fellow consultants, contractors and service providers might not be as forthcoming with such information as you might have hoped. However, even if you figured out how much to charge, it is still always beneficial to be able to consider it within the context of what your peers might be charging.
However, for those of you who work in the Caribbean region, it is not only a challenge to get sense of what professional fee rates might obtain in an individual country, but also across the region. In light of the insulation and isolation consultants, contractors and service providers are likely to feel from time to time, we have created a Survey of Consulting, Contracting and Services Provision Fees Charged in the Caribbean, which we ask that you complete.
The survey consists of 16 questions, and could be completed in less than ten (10) minutes. Please note that we do not ask for any personally identifiable information; hence we ask that you be as honest as possible in your responses. Ultimately, we are trying to get – and eventually share with you – as accurate a picture as possible of the professional fees being charged for local, regional and internationally-funded projects.
Finally, we also ask that you share this survey with your fellow consultants, contractors and service providers to help us get as wide a sample as possible, and thus more authoritative results.
We look forward to your support!
(Photo: cybrgrl, flickr)
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This new Project Calls website has been a long time coming!
As with most ventures, Project Calls started off trying to solve a problem: to reduce the time Independent Consultants and Contractors spend searching for project opportunities. Although searching for work opportunities is a necessary part of Consultant’s and Contractor’s life, it can be tedious, definitely time consuming, but also eats away valuable time that could be spent on paid, or otherwise productive, work.
From all indications, our mailing list subscribers have found Project Calls a valuable resource to help them be more aware of the opportunities across the region. With that knowledge, they can then decide whether on not to bid on a particular opportunity. The key though is being armed the informations not order to make an informed decision.
One of observations over the past 5 to 10 years, particularly since the global financial crisis in 2008, is the fact that competition for projects has gotten stiff. More Caribbean people seem to be working as Consultants and Contractors, but still for some of the larger tenders, say over USD 50,000, they still tend to be dominated by the more recognized, international/global firms.
Hence, in addition to collating Caribbean project opportunities, we eventually intend to share insights, tools and resources, all geared towards improving the quality of bids our subscribers prepare and submit, but ultimately, doing our part to help the Caribbean Consultant not only survive, but thrive!
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