> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.lacaribenanews.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Guyana Awarded G$3.6 Billion for Beacons and a Vessel Traffic Service on the Demerara. A Spreadsheet Row Is the Only Place It Was Announced. - URL: https://www.lacaribenanews.com/guyana-3-6-billion-demerara-beacons-vessel-traffic-service-award-2026/ - Published: 2026-11-05T00:59:30.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-08T05:21:29.000Z - Description: Guyana awarded G$3,615,354,000 on 24 September 2026 for beacons, a vessel traffic service and port security systems on the Demerara Main Ships Channel. It is the seventh largest Guyana-dollar award on the register and the largest outside the health ministry's drug buying. No announcement followed. - Author: Theon Alleyne - Tags: Guyana, Procurement, public contracts, Maritime, Shipping, Compliance, Business, Beat: procurement-project-finance, MSME: direct **Quick summary:** Guyana awarded G$3,615,354,000 on 24 September 2026 for concrete leading beacons, a vessel traffic service and port security systems on the Demerara Main Ships Channel. It is the seventh largest Guyana-dollar award on a 12,316-row register and the largest outside the health ministry's drug purchases. No announcement followed. By LCN Business Desk In May the Minister of Public Utilities and Aviation attended a signing on the Demerara for a dredging contract. In September, on the same river, under the same ministry, an award half again as large was made, and the government said nothing at all. In public it exists as one row of a spreadsheet. ## What exactly was awarded, and to whom? One contract, one row, four firms in a joint venture. | Field as the register publishes it | Value | | ---------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Procuring entity | Ministry of Public Utilities & Aviation | | Contract reference | 28/2026/34 | | Description | Concrete Leading Beacons with Vessel Traffic Service and Port Security Systems for the Demerara Main Ships Channel | | Awardee | Lena Engenharia E. Construcoes, Proyectos E. Innovacion Cinco, Excel Guyana Inc, Latitude Geospatial Consultancy Inc (J.V) | | Amount | G$3,615,354,000 | | Procurement method | NCB, national competitive bidding | | Number of tenders or proposals | 4 | | Date of award | 24 September 2026 | | Date uploaded | 25 September 2026 | *Source: the awarded-tenders register published by the [National Procurement and Tender Administration Board](https://www.npta.gov.gy/tenders-awarded/?ref=lacaribenanews.com), retrieved 4 November 2026\. Spelling and punctuation of the awardee are the register's own.* Leading beacons are fixed markers a ship lines up to stay in a dredged channel. A vessel traffic service is the shore station that watches and directs the traffic using it. One is concrete and the other is radar, software and staff, and this contract buys both, plus port security systems, under a single reference. At the official exchange rate of G$208.5 to US$1, which the [Ministry of Finance mid-year report](https://finance.gov.gy/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Mid-Year-Report-2026.pdf?ref=lacaribenanews.com) recorded as unchanged at end-June 2026, the award is about US$17.3 million. At the market mid-rate the same report gives, 220.6 to 223.7, it is nearer US$16.2 million. ## Where does an award this size sit on the national register? Seventh among the register's Guyana-dollar awards, and first outside one ministry's medicine bill. | Rank among Guyana-dollar awards | Amount (G$) | Buyer | Supplier | | ------------------------------- | ----------------- | ------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ | | 1 | 13,245,155,477 | Ministry of Health | New GPC Inc. | | 2 | 4,362,483,214 | Ministry of Health | New GPC Inc. | | 3 | 4,336,107,899 | Ministry of Health | New GPC | | 4 | 4,336,107,899 | Ministry of Health | New GPC | | 5 | 4,008,701,872 | Ministry of Health | New GPC Inc | | 6 | 4,008,701,872 | Ministry of Health | New GPC Inc | | **7** | **3,615,354,000** | **Ministry of Public Utilities & Aviation** | **Lena, Proyectos, Excel Guyana, Latitude Geospatial (J.V)** | | 8 | 3,476,624,420 | Guyana Water Inc. | Jiangsu Gaia Enviromntal Technology | | 9 | 3,245,063,450 | Ministry of Public Works | S. Jagmohan Constr & Gen Sups Inc | *The nine largest awards priced in Guyana dollars across all 12,316 rows of the register, retrieved 4 November 2026\. Rows 3 and 4 are the same contract reference published twice, as are rows 5 and 6.* Every row above the beacons award is the same buyer paying the same supplier for pharmaceuticals, and two of those rows are duplicates. Strip the medicine out and nothing else in the register, which reaches back to 2020, is larger. Three awards dated 2026 clear a billion Guyana dollars, and two of the three are maritime: this one, and the G$1,034,000,000 booked on 6 October for raising a wreck. ::: **Six rows carry a larger figure. All six are the health ministry buying drugs from one company.** ::: ## Was anybody else bidding? Four firms, and on this contract that figure can be taken at face value. The register's bidders column usually cannot. [On two-thirds of its rows the figure counts an entire advertisement's response and is then stamped against every lot awarded under it](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/nptab-awarded-tenders-bidders-figure-not-per-contract-guyana-2026/), which is how a single bridge advertisement put 634 against 31 separate awards. The test is whether the contract reference repeats. Reference 28/2026/34 appears exactly once in 12,316 rows, so the four describes this contract and nothing else. Four is not many for a project of this size, and it is not few by the register's own standard either. On the rows where the figure can be trusted, the median is six. ## Why was a contract this size not tendered internationally? Because the register shows almost nothing in Guyana is. International competitive bidding appears on five rows out of 12,316\. All five are priced in US dollars, and only two carry an amount a reader can use: US$299,934.91 and US$163,373.00, both Ministry of Education consultancies awarded in mid-2026\. The other three ICB rows print their contract amount as 8, 1.2 and 0.83. Against those five, national competitive bidding carries 10,571 rows, limited national bidding 257, open tender three and community participation two. A further 1,459 rows leave the method blank. The Board's own 84-page [Guide to the Public Procurement Procedures](https://www.npta.gov.gy/wp-content/uploads/Guyana%5FPublic%5FProcurement%5FGuide%5FMay2009.pdf?ref=lacaribenanews.com) sets out thresholds for restricted tendering, for requests for quotations and for community participation, and names no figure at which international bidding becomes mandatory. ## What does the law give a Guyanese contractor on a contract like this? A ten per cent preference applies to locally manufactured goods. Works carry none. The Board's guide states that the Procurement Act "permits a preference of 10 % for locally manufactured goods over goods which are imported from outside the country (Section 39.6 (b))", provided the preference and its method are set out in the bidding documents. It then states: "No preference is specified in the Procurement Act for domestic works contractors." Two of these four partners are Guyanese-named companies with a history on this register, and a joint venture is how a local firm reaches a contract of this scale. Whatever advantage a local partner brings to a bid for channel infrastructure, the statute is not the source of it. ## What had the government already said about this project? That it was being tendered a second time. Nothing since. The Department of Public Information published a release on 9 June 2026, [under the heading "Government advancing river navigation safety with new beacon infrastructure projects"](https://dpi.gov.gy/government-advancing-river-navigation-safety-with-new-beacon-infrastructure-projects/?ref=lacaribenanews.com), filed under the Ministry of Public Utilities and Aviation. Three sentences in, it records that the Maritime Administration Department "is also re-tendering a project to construct concrete leading beacons for the Demerara Main Ships Channel. These will be equipped with vessel traffic service and port security systems." The release names no value, no bidder, no closing date and no funding source, and quotes nobody. Its own word is "re-tendering", which establishes that an earlier attempt at the same works did not produce an award. Why it did not is not stated anywhere retrievable. Fifteen weeks later the contract was awarded. On the public record this newspaper can find, no release, no statement and no reported remark has named the winner, the price or the date. Compare the treatment of the same channel in May. MARAD signed a US$11.2 million contract with Boskalis CPG Inc to dredge about 9 kilometres of the navigational channel from Houston to Golden Grove to 100 metres wide and 5 metres deep, over two months. [News Room reported](https://newsroom.gy/2026/05/12/govt-signs-us11-2m-contract-to-dredge-demerara-river-channel/?ref=lacaribenanews.com) that Minister of Public Utilities and Aviation Deodat Indar and Permanent Secretary Vishal Ambedkar both attended the signing, and at least four outlets carried it. The dredging contract is the smaller of the two. ## When was the supervision of the works put out to tender? Thirty-five days after the works were awarded. MARAD invited bids in late October for consultancy services to supervise the construction of the beacons, the vessel traffic service and the port security systems on the same channel, again under national competitive bidding. The [Guyana and North America Trade Association carried the notice on 29 October 2026](https://www.gnata.org/2026/10/29/bids-invited-for-supervision-of-demerara-shipping-channel-beacon-project/?ref=lacaribenanews.com), truncated at source, and the same advertisement appears on the Department of Public Information's invitation-for-bids index as "Construction Supervision of Concrete Leading Beacons with Vessel Traffic Service and Port Security Systems". Five weeks separate the award of the works from the advertisement for the engineer who will certify them. Neither notice says when construction begins, so whether that gap reaches the site is not established. ## How much of this ministry's published spending is this one contract? More than twice everything else it has ever been recorded buying. The next largest award this ministry holds is G$198,960,000, for electromechanical equipment accessories in May. This one is eighteen times it. Across every award the register holds for this ministry, the beacons contract alone is worth more than twice all the others put together. ## Have these four firms held Guyana contracts before? Excel Guyana Inc and Latitude Geospatial have five awards between them. Lena Engenharia e Construções and Proyectos e Innovación Cinco have none. | Partner as the award names it | Other rows on the register | Total (G$) | | ------------------------------ | -------------------------- | ---------- | | Lena Engenharia E. Construcoes | 0 | nil | | Proyectos E. Innovacion Cinco | 0 | nil | | Excel Guyana Inc | 1 | 13,283,052 | | Latitude Geospatial | 4 | 51,450,006 | *Awards the register holds under each partner's own name.* Excel Guyana Inc and Latitude Geospatial hold G$64,733,058 between them, across five awards from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Guyana Sugar Corporation, for vessel tracking devices, artisanal vessel equipment, a spatial analysis, an environmental proposal and a sugar stick packaging machine. The largest single one is G$20,785,739\. This contract is fifty-five times what the two of them have been given before. The register records awards rather than experience, so it cannot show what any of these firms has built outside Guyana. Three of the four have no Guyanese public contract behind them on the published record, and the register is the only place that fact is available. ## What should a firm selling to the state take from this? That the award and the announcement travelled by different routes, and the larger contract used neither. A ceremony is not the measure of a contract's size. The ministry buying channel infrastructure has published one contract worth more than everything else it has ever bought on the record and said nothing about it, while the smaller dredging job on the same water got a signing, a minister and four outlets. A supplier watching the press will not see the bigger of the two. ## What is not established here? Why the first tender for these works produced no award, and when it was advertised. The June release says only "re-tendering". The funding source. No release or notice names one, for the works or for the supervision. The corporate status and domicile of Lena Engenharia e Construções and Proyectos e Innovación Cinco, neither of which appears elsewhere on the register. Whether Latitude Geospatial Consultancy Inc, named on this award, is the Latitude Geospatial Consulting Inc that holds the four earlier ones. The register carries both spellings and no other similar name, and the Commercial Registry would settle it. How much the register leaves out. [A G$52.56 billion road award of December 2024 does not appear on it](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/guyana-awarded-tenders-register-missing-road-award-record-quality-2026/), so the seventh-largest ranking here is a ranking within what the register publishes rather than within everything Guyana has awarded. ### The entities \- **National Procurement and Tender Administration Board** is the Guyanese body that publishes the awarded-tenders register carrying the 12,316 rows this article measures. - **Ministry of Public Utilities & Aviation** is the procuring entity named on the award. - **Maritime Administration Department (MARAD)** is the maritime regulator within that ministry, named in the June release as re-tendering the works and in the October notice as inviting supervision bids. - **Demerara Main Ships Channel** is the navigational channel on the Demerara River where the beacons, the vessel traffic service and the port security systems are to be installed. - **Department of Public Information** is the Government of Guyana's publisher, whose release of 9 June 2026 recorded the re-tender. - **Boskalis CPG Inc** is the contractor that signed a US$11.2 million dredging contract for the same channel in May 2026\. - **Procurement Act** is the Guyanese statute whose section 39.6 (b) permits a ten per cent preference for locally manufactured goods and specifies none for domestic works contractors. - **New GPC Inc.** is the pharmaceutical supplier holding every Guyana-dollar award on the register larger than this one. ### What the title card says \- Headline: Guyana awarded G$3.6 billion for beacons and a vessel traffic service on the Demerara, and a spreadsheet row is the only place it was announced. - Amount awarded: G$3,615,354,000, contract reference 28/2026/34\. - Date of award: 24 September 2026, uploaded to the register 25 September 2026\. - Rank among Guyana-dollar awards on the register: 7th of 12,316 rows. - Rows larger than it, and who holds them: six, all Ministry of Health purchases from New GPC. - Procurement method: NCB, national competitive bidding. - Bidders recorded: 4, on a single-lot contract reference. - Rows in the whole register tendered internationally: 5\. - Preference the Procurement Act gives domestic works contractors: none. - Comparison on the same channel: US$11.2 million for dredging, signed at a ceremony in May 2026\. - Days between the award of the works and the advertisement for the supervising engineer: 35\. - Source: the awarded-tenders register published by the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board, retrieved 4 November 2026, with the Department of Public Information release of 9 June 2026. ## Frequently Asked Questions Who won the Demerara beacons and vessel traffic service contract? A four-firm joint venture the register names as Lena Engenharia E. Construcoes, Proyectos E. Innovacion Cinco, Excel Guyana Inc and Latitude Geospatial Consultancy Inc. The award is dated 24 September 2026 at G$3,615,354,000, under contract reference 28/2026/34, and was uploaded to the register the following day. Is G$3.6 billion a large public contract in Guyana? It is the seventh largest Guyana-dollar award across all 12,316 rows of the awarded-tenders register, and the largest that is not a Ministry of Health purchase of pharmaceuticals from New GPC. Three awards dated 2026 clear a billion Guyana dollars, and two of those three are maritime. Was the contract advertised internationally? No. The register records it as NCB, national competitive bidding. International competitive bidding appears on five of the 12,316 rows, and the Board's own procurement guide names no threshold at which international bidding becomes mandatory. Did the government announce the award? Not on the public record this newspaper can find. The Department of Public Information reported on 9 June 2026 that the project was being re-tendered, without a value or a bidder, and no release, statement or reported remark since has named the winner or the price. The row in the register is the announcement. What is a vessel traffic service? A shore-based station that monitors and directs ship movements in a defined area, using radar, radio and vessel position reporting. In this contract it is bought alongside the concrete leading beacons that ships line up on to stay within the dredged channel, and alongside port security systems, under one contract reference.