Demonstrators get explanation from Social Investment Fund

The cries of the Concerned Builders of Dangriga who demonstrated at the entrance to Dangriga on Monday did not fall on deaf ears. Today, the implementing agency they staged the protest against, the Social Investment Fund, sent two officials to Dangriga to meet with the contractors and construction workers. The men had complained that because government projects in Dangriga were being contracted to persons from elsewhere, they were out of jobs. Vice Chairman of the group, Calvin Nunez, says the meeting with the two officials, Mike Zetina and Mike Hernandez, provided an opportunity for them to learn SIF’s procedures in issuing contracts. The men told News Five on Monday that they were not invited to submit tenders for the projects currently under construction. But later in the day SIF’s Public Relations Officer, Hernandez, told News Five that they had placed newspaper advertisements, but no one from Dangriga submitted any tender. Nunez told us today that he and another contractor had been bidding for one of the projects but they were turned down without reason. He added that no explanation was given on what qualified the others to get the contracts. The silver lining is that the SIF officials did agree to return to Dangriga to explain the contract procedures.