Even after Open Letters to the Premier in today’s papers Subcontractors just don’t rate importance to Barry O’Farrell.
Today we a filing more applications at the District Court, Downing Centre, Sydney to force Barry O’Farrells NSW Governmemnt to pay Subcontractors for work they have completed on NSW Govt Projects they completed under the management of Reed Constructions Australia.
We are forced to do this because Barry O’Farrell refuses to ensure Subcontractors that are struggling to survive receive the money that the Expert Panel he appointed which has determined that money is owing by the NSW Govt begins to flow to Subcontractors immediately.
NSW Public Works recently certified millions of dollars to be paid to Subcontractors who worked on NSW Public Housing Projects for St Hilliers but now Barry O’Farrell wont release this money to the Subcontractors.
Barry O’Farrell last week tore up the Reed Constructions Contracts, although we are not exactly sure why yet we do know this will mean more Subcontractors suffer and that the NSW Taxpayers will pay more and wait longer for the major roads infrastructure works involved to be completed by another contractor.
All the talk in the industry is that representatives of the Roads & Maritime Services were aware Subcontractors werent being paid by Reed but still paid Reed money which should have made its way to Subcontractors but didn’t. Some Subcontractors even sent Statutory Declarations of their own to this effect to the RMS at the insistance of RMS Project Managers to no avail. The Subcontractors continued on with the work in good faith on the advice of RMS representatives that they had checked out Reeds financial position and that everything would be ok – where has this got them
Barry O’Farrell the week before last tore up the St Hilliers Contracts, although we are not exactly sure why because many other Govt agencies didn’t yet we do know this will mean more Subcontractors suffer and that the NSW Taxpayers will pay more and wait longer for the Public Housing works involved to be completed by another contractor.
Tim Casey, CEO of St Hilliers made it very clear to Quentin Dempster of the ABC after last weeks Creditors Meeting that there is no doubt that Subcontractors will be worse off as a consequence of the NSW Govt taking the Contracts from St Hilliers.
I know, after more than 30 years of experience in the construction industry, and I am certain everyone in the construction industry would agree, that the NSW Govt Projects that have been taken off Reed and St Hilliers will now blow out significantly in both time and cost because of what is involved in mobilising a new contractor and new subcontractors. Further the new contractor will not warrant the previous contractors works and this will be a disaster in itself especially for the major road works sub base.
Barry O’Farrell , his NSW Govt and his Departments are clearly bungling major projects at the expense of Subcontractors and NSW Taxpayers.