Business View Caribbean | October 2020

61 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN OCTOBER 2020 INTERNAT IONAL CONSTRUCT ION MANAGERS LTD . the project and the budget. What this allows us to do is go in and evaluate the project’s worst case and best case scenario. And then, we give the owner a guaranteed maximum price, and we’re able to do that because we do our due diligence. “We’re very tight with our budget. We do value engineering, where we can get people better prices for the same quality. We shop around from all around the world to get the best prices on material. We also look at labor factors - if the locals can’t do it, we bring in the people that can. This allows us to keep the budget down. We also monitor the time frame; we set up a schedule. We let a plumber know he’s going to be in from Monday to Wednesday; the electrician is going to be in from Wednesday to Thursday; we know the AC guys will be in on the weekend. We monitor that schedule to make sure that all of the work is kept within that time frame. “When you hire a contractor and give him a contract with time and materials, if he’s not performing, you have a problem because you have already given him money to buy materials and he has you tied in. But when we monitor materials, if the subcontractor’s not performing, we can give him notice of three days to correct the issue. If he doesn’t, we get somebody else. They come in and they fit right into the program because you don’t need to try and recover materials or buy new materials. We already know what materials are needed because we do a quantity survey that tells us everything – doors, windows, the amount of dry wall, etc., and we monitor those like we monitor the budget. So, when we manage the job, we keep everything running smooth, on time, and on budget.” While ICM is based in Nassau in The Bahamas, Marshall notes that the company is, indeed, an international firm. In Antigua, it built the Antigua Public Utilities Authority Headquarters; the Treasury Building; and the Antigua Department of Marines Services Headquarters for the