‘Sub-contractors unpaid for state projects’

SUB-CONTRACTORS are being left out of pocket to the tune of hundreds of thousands of euro for work they carry out on state projects because the Government is not checking the “financial robustness” of the developers to which they award the contracts.

The Construction Industry Federation hosted a meeting of representative of more than 200 sub-contracting companies who have been left unpaid because the developers who hired them had fallen into financial difficulty.

The CIF said many of the attendees were owed tens and hundreds of thousands as a result of the recent collapse of the Pierse Contracting, Michael McNamara & Co and others.

Tony O’Leary, chairman of the CIF’s Alliance of Specialist Contractors Association said it was intolerable that the contractors are owed the money relating to work carried out on public contracts for the state.

“Companies like Pierse and McNamara were winning state contracts right up to their collapse,” he said.

“As sub-contractors we presumed that their financial robustness was being properly assessed by the Government procurement authorities. The work has been carried out for the state but those who did the work have not been paid. It’s an appalling indictment of how the state conducts its business in Ireland.”

He claimed it was well-known the Government was accepting below-cost tenders and boasting about the value for money that it is achieving.

“Below-cost tenders mean sub-contractors and suppliers don’t get paid. It’s totally unsustainable; it will drive companies out of business, costing jobs and Exchequer revenues,” he said.

CIF director general Tom Parlon said the Government and opposition should, as a matter of emergency, ensure the passage of the Construction Contracts Bill into law before the dissolution of the Dáil.

That bill would create enforceable stage payments to sub-contractors in a project allied to a quick, accessible adjudication system to deal with situations where there was a row.

“We will also be contacting all public procuring authorities to point out their moral obligation to ensure sub-contractors who are owed money are re-engaged in the completion of projects affected by the recent insolvencies,” Mr Parlon said. “We are seeking an meeting with NAMA to appraise it of the impacts of its decisions.”