F·01All buyers
How to vet a contractor
Five checks to tell whether a transmission, substation or cable contractor can answer for the works: entity, exact role, dates, team and paperwork.
On a high-voltage project, price matters less than it seems. What the buyer fears is something else: a vendor who is gone when the warranty starts to run, or contractors who blame each other when something fails.
The data backs this up. In Genetec’s State of Physical Security 2026, 73% of end users said the long-term viability and stability of the vendor is a key factor when evaluating solutions, ahead of price. The sample is physical security, but the logic holds for critical infrastructure: whoever buys for decades wants a vendor that will still be there. And the complaint that keeps coming up in the industry is vendors “pointing fingers at each other”.
Five checks before you invite
1. The entity and the office
Does the company that will sign actually exist? Does it have one office, with a local address and phone? If the website, the phone number and the social profiles point to different places, ask who is accountable. Request the Public Registry certificate.
2. The exact role on each reference
“We took part in project X” says nothing. Ask whether they were the main EPC contractor, a subcontractor to whom, or project management, and request the contract or letter that proves it. If two companies claim the same project, one of them has to explain what it did.
3. Dates that add up
Ask for each project’s actual status with an as-of date: started, handed over, suspended. A project with no handover date, or one that has long passed, deserves a question.
4. A named team
Be wary of “X years of combined experience”. Ask for the names of the people who will lead your project, their roles, their years in the trade and the projects they worked on.
5. Paperwork in order
A current tax clearance, PanamaCompra registration for public tenders and an official no-debarment certificate. A private aggregator is a lead, not proof.
A responsibility matrix prevents the blame game
A substation involves the equipment manufacturer, civil works, erection and protection. Before signing, ask for a matrix showing who answers for each interface. It is the document you will want at hand on energization day.
How we answer these checks
We put all five answers in writing before you ask: entity and office on the company page, the exact role on each project sheet, and the named team and paperwork in the prequalification package.
