Contractor Anderson Cherry yesterday took to the airwaves to slam the Ministry of Transport and Works (MTW) for giving the $30 million accelerated mill and pave roadworks to two of the leading contractors in Barbados while the “small, black-owned contractors were being unfaired”.
However, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport and Works Santia Bradshaw has denied this. She explained that C.O. Williams Construction and Infra Construction were selected because the programme was being treated “with a degree of urgency” and as such, there was no mobilisation fee involved and contractors would have to supply the asphalt.
The heated discussion took place on Starcom Network’s radio call-in programme Down To Brass Tacks yesterday morning where the outspoken Cherry called to express his disappointment over how MTW was allocating roadwork contracts. In relation to the mill and pave drive, he claimed that the “strategy was being used so that the small black man cannot get work”.
Bradshaw, who called in to defend her ministry, explained that Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley announced the initiative five weeks ago “and indicated that she wanted contractors who could work very quickly, but be able to not only supply the asphalt but also to be able to work 18-hour days”.
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