Government to Strengthen Skills of Contractors Under NSHP

The Government will be undertaking a training programme to boost the skills of contractors under the New Social Housing Programme (NSHP).

The move is part of a review of the programme aimed at improving the efficiency and speed of delivery of the housing units.

“What that will likely mean is that we are going to seek to expand the budget for the NSHP (and) we’re also going to increase the number of beneficiaries that we are going to attend to per year. To do this, however, our initial assessment is that we do have a challenge with having contractors,” said Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness.

He was addressing the handover of a three-bedroom unit in Buff Bay, Portland on Friday (September 8).

The Prime Minister noted that while the challenge with contractors is “right across the board” where infrastructure development is concerned “we are feeling it in a serious way particularly in this programme.”

“The approach that the Government is going to take is one where we will set up almost an incubator – a training programme for small and local contractors to work with them, to help them develop their skills, develop their project management (and) their financial management,” he said.

He noted that the programme will also help the contractors to better understand building construction, architecture, engineering, and all the relevant skills that are necessary to execute small projects, like those under the NSHP, in a quick and efficient way.

The intention is for the contractors to eventually grow into medium and larger contractors to take on other projects that the Government will execute.

Mr. Holness noted that under the NSHP, there are about 60 houses in various phases of construction that are expected to be handed over before the year ends.

With this target, he emphasised the need for the programme to be scaled up.

Stating that the administrative, accounting and procurement considerations are “properly tied up”, Mr. Holness contended, “we could easily double (or) triple the output of this programme if we had contractors on whom we could rely.”

The Prime Minister informed that he has met with the senior leadership and senior management of the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, which has oversight for the NSHP, to look at all its policies, projects and programmes.

“We are about converting the benefits of the improved economic performance into real benefits for the people of Jamaica,” he said.