The contractors associations will submit their recommendations for the contractors board to government this week, and have had their suggested revisions to the Contractor's Act sent to the attorney general's office, President of the Bahamian Contractors' Association (BCA) Leonard Sands said yesterday.

Sands said the next step is for the minister of works to appoint the contractors board that the current legislation calls for.

Minister of Works and Utilities Alfred Sears told this paper recently that the government plans to amend the Construction Contractors Act, 2016 to allow contractors to be grandfathered in as licensed contractors, as the transitional period for the original grandfathering process "has been spent".

Sands was elated that the process to regularize professional contractors has begun in earnest again.

"We also were advised that the two revisions that the BCA made, and the two revisions that the other associations made were noted and forwarded on to the attorney general's office for the redrafting of the amendment to the Construction Contractors Act," said Sands.

"And then we await the appointment of the board by the minister. So, we will do our part this week, we will submit our names. And they only then have to take it to Cabinet, have it approved and debate it, and once it's passed, the minister appoints the board.

"And we will have a law that is enforced in the country. Once we submit the names, the associations would have done all we need to do. It's in the ministry's hands after that."

Sands said the BCA plans to continue moving forward with certifying contractors so that when the board is appointed, licensing can take place.

"We're using the act as our benchmark, so we just mirroring that, but moving ahead," he said.

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