Pre-Qualification Stage of Bidding for SPARK Completed

The National Works Agency has completed the pre-qualification stage of the international competitive bidding for the Shared Prosperity through Accelerated Improvement to our Road Network (SPARK) Programme.

Eight construction companies responded to the request for pre-qualification, two of which are local.

Five international companies were successful and bid proposals will be sent to the five pre-qualified construction companies this week.

“We expect those bid proposals to be returned by mid-August, and then we will seek approval from the Public Procurement Commission, as well as Cabinet, to award contracts by the end of September,” said Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation with responsibility for Works, Hon. Robert Morgan.

He was addressing Wednesday’s (June 12) post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House.

The construction contracts are scheduled for two years, with an additional year for defects liability.

Minister Morgan also informed that SPARK has been approved for inclusion in the Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP), and the concept has been approved by the Public Investment Management Committee (PIMC).

“The contract for proposal studies and analysis is being awarded this week after a national competitive bid, and our schedule for completion of this proposal to the Ministry of Finance is by the end of August. We hope to get approval from PIMC and Cabinet before the end of September,” he advised.

For his part, Chief Executive Officer of the National Works Agency (NWA), E.G. Hunter, underscored that SPARK is an ambitious and aggressive programme.

“It is not a patching programme, it is not a pothole repair programme. It is actually a rehabilitation programme that seeks to improve the quality of a certain number of roads, and what that means is that the cost for this undertaking is going to be very different from what we normally do,” Mr. Hunter said.

He explained that the capacity of the country to spend $40 billion over two years, simultaneously across constituencies, is demanding, but the NWA has done a good job of conceptualising a workable programme.