By LYNETTE KIL
MANAGING Director for Garom Limited Paul Morgan (pictured) says the Government’s Connect PNG Programme is an enabler for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), particularly the national contractors.
He said Connect PNG enables the national contractors to prove to the country and the government that they (contractors) can also perform to the expected standard.
Mr. Morgan made this remark after receiving his company’s outstanding payment from the Department of Works and Highways on Monday, 29 January 2024.
“The programme has boosted the company’s performance capacity as one of the national contractors in the SME category.
“The Connect PNG Programme gave us the rare opportunity to bid for a major project as a PNG owned company, and to compete on an even footing against the larger foreign owned corporations who have always dominated the Construction sector in PNG,” Morgan said.
He said the company has been involved in road construction projects in the Island Region for well over 20 years with proven track record and have successfully completed many civil work projects with Provincial and National Works Departments.
Mr. Morgan said under the Connect PNG Programme the company was awarded a 11kilometer road construction to connect missing link between East and West New Britain, and is now a fully two coated bitumen sealed road.
“It’s a K30 million new road project with greater challenges including importing of materials from overseas, bad weather, and logistics transportation, however, we delivered successfully, having met the standard and we received our certificate of road completion,” he said.
“What people need is basic service like road, and to see people smile as we construct the road encouraged us to do more to connect missing links for people to have access to economic activities.”
Through this road construction, Morgan said he has engaged 100 personnel, as well as number of youths and church groups on causal basis along the project corridor, providing direct employment opportunities back to the communities.
“We are thankful that the National government through their procurement processes awarded this project, a chance to prove that a nationally owned SME company can also deliver a large project with the quality expected by the Department of Works and Highways,” he said.
