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The Small Business Administration recently took what the surety bond industry believes is an important step to reinvigorate the government's Surety Bond Guarantee Program. SBA is proposing rules intended to make participation in the program more attractive to sureties for the benefit of small contractors needing access to surety bonds to bid on public construction projects, according to a group of surety and insurance trade associations. .
Zimbabwe's Parks and Wildlife Management Authority is seeking the government's approval for its 460 million U.S. dollars grand investment deal with an American investor for the establishment of a tourist facility in Kariba, The Sunday Mail reported. The Zimbabwe Attorney-General's Office is believed to be currently evaluating the nature of the transaction. Also, the deal has to be sanctioned by other stakeholders such as the Zimbabwe Investment Center (ZIC), which has already given its blessings. Significant progress has been made in negotiations with the investor and the deal was certain to come to fruition, the newspaper said. The authority's finance director Thomas Meke confirmed this development and said that the American investor was prepared to partake in the venture, but the discussions were still sensitive at the moment.
The Wilkes-Barre contractor that installed Jim Thorpe's downtown water project says the borough owes an additional $569,000 for the work, but Borough Council says the balance is $25,000.
Borough Council members said Thursday they don't intend to pay the extra money sought by Linde Construction.
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Contractor General Greg Christie has come under fire for his stance in the Sandals Whitehouse matter. In particular, a complaint he made that many public sector bodies flout government procurement guidelines and more still simply ignore requests made by the Office of the Contractor General for information that might reveal same. Amazingly, there are few, if any, sanctions and where they do exist, such measures are inconsequential. It's time our politicians move beyond setting up understaffed organisations with few resources and little actual power to fight the corruption they claim they so desperately want to get rid of. It's time they move beyond platitudes. - Archibald Gordon, skilarchie@hotmail.com. Christie's stance Contractor General Greg Christie told the Public Accounts Committee that he did not need to ask twice for information.
The troubled Construction and Training Authority (CETA), which recently received the findings of a forensic report into its operations, believes the foundations are being laid for a more sustainable operational structure. It has, therefore, moved to sign a number of memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with construction and related companies as it sought to begin a new chapter.Earlier in the week, the CETA had received the findings of a forensic investigation it had commissioned.The investigation, which was commissioned by the CETA itself, interrogated the agency’s operations, and highlighted key weaknesses. CETA spokesperson Shereen Maubane explained that the report dealt with allegations of financial irregularities as uncovered by forensic auditors LMD Africa.“The investigation dealt broadly with any inappropriate linkages between CETA staff and training providers,” she commented.It is now possible that subsequent investigations could follow.
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