MoU signed to assist persons in attaining electrical contractor’s licence

…to eliminate ‘middlemen’ arrangements
…inspection of all Govt buildings requested – Edghill

The Ministries of Labour and Public Works will collaborate to train and assess persons wishing to attain an electrical contractor’s licence.
On Monday, both Ministries, via their agencies – the Board of Industrial Training (BIT), and the Government Electoral Inspectorate (GEI) – signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to this effect.
Labour Minister Joseph Hamilton shared that they are trying to ensure that persons are trained and certified, having found that many persons in the field are not properly certified.
“What we have in Guyana is that a lot of people run wires in the construction industry but in large measure, most of them are unable to sign off on a building. They have to go look for some man in the village to sign the document. For young and upcoming contractors, sometimes they have to pay heft costs from the money they make,” he identified.

With this collaborative approach, Hamilton said this issue will be tackled to reduce such cases. Going forward, persons trained by BIT will acquire their certification under this partnership.
“We’re attempting collaboration to bring that to an end, to see how the inspectorate department can help us regarding accreditation, certification of persons we’re training in electrical installation.”
In his remarks, Public Works Minister Juan Edghill expressed his Government has at the centre of its mandate, to make the lives of Guyanese easier. The partnership comes at a time when the Ali-led Administration is distributing 50,000 house lots, Edghill said, adding that those with existing homes are also upgrading.
“There is a great demand in this area…Essentially, there are some middlemen who are eating away at the livelihoods of some of the guys who actually do the work, because of the lack of certification and accreditation. Once we have a middle-man eating away at the profit, prices to get things done rise,” the Minister recognised.
In attempting to crush such monopoly, he added, “I am pleased that the Ministry of Public Works is engaging with the Ministry of Labour to participate in improving the service delivery to people by ensuring that they have more qualified, certified, and quality control.”
This move also comes amid concerns raised by Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn on removing the hazards of electrical fires. To do this, the Ministers agreed that standardisation and quality control during installation becomes paramount.
“I have actually asked the Government Electrical Inspectorate to get out in a proactive way and start inspecting all Government buildings. That’s an instruction they had from me since we had the St George’s School fire,” Edghill disclosed.