By Damion Mitchell, Staff ReporterTHE INCORPORATED Master Builders Association of Jamaica has requested an urgent meeting with the National Works Agency (NWA) to discuss proposals to address the growing problem of communities extorting money from contractors.
On Wednesday, Ivan Anderson, chief executive officer of the NWA, said that the NWA would not hesitate to abort contracts in communities where residents try to extort money from contractors and where the success of development projects depend on contractors' compliance with the demands of dons.
CONTRACTS STOPPED
Already six contracts have been stopped because of extortion, he confirmed.
Raymond Cooper, vice-president of the Incorporated Master Builders Association of Jamaica, told The Gleaner yesterday that there was an urgent need to fix the problem of extortion as, "the scale is apparently escalating more significantly."
Within the last six months, Bouygues, the firm undertaking the multi-million dollar construction of the Old Harbour Bypass and Jose Cartelone, contractors on one segment of the North Coast Highway, have reported that persons attempted to extort money from them.
Next week's meeting, which will be attended by representatives of the association and contractors, will also examine recommendations for the security forces to address the extortion issue, said Mr. Cooper.
He echoed comments made by Mr. Anderson that, in instances where contractors incurred high costs to secure their materials and equipment from extortionists, the costs for the projects inevitably escalate.
According to Mr. Cooper contractors were reluctant to tender bids for an NWA project in one St. Catherine community recently, because of the fear of extortion.
Mr. Cooper said his association is in the embryonic stage of preparing proposals for the Human Employment and Resource Training (HEART) Trust to provide training and certification programmes for construction workers.
He said that this would create a more structured system for the employment of persons on construction projects.
He also said the programmes would facilitate better levels of co-operation, reduced costs and improved quality of work on construction sites.
