In Malta there has always been a misconception about the local building contractor, particularly with the layman. During the latter part of the 20th century, he has been considered as the illiterate, shabby dusty worker, delivering low-quality workmanship only at his own pace. He has always been considered as a danger to the public on the building site (and to the site itself!), the adjoining properties and neighbourhood.
One of these impressions had been brought about by the laissez-faire mentality of the building contractor, who was often insensitive to the dusty environment created by direct stone tipping and dressing on site. Today, masonry blocks are delivered on site on pallets already dressed. Manual unloading takes place after the stone dressing has taken place in the quarry or elsewhere off-site.
Noisy cranes leaking oil often added insult to injury, apart from the inconvenience of taking up much needed parking space and vehicular circulation, particularly in built-up areas. The introduction of tower cranes has solved most of these problems.
This breed of tradesmen, il-bennejja, have always been considered as a necessary evil for property development. This was especially so when land for developing was not so scarce and well established contractors were only a handful. The result was that owners had to wait months, if not years, to build a plot of land.
Under cover?
As a reaction to the 1960s building boom, and perhaps a smaller one in the beginning of the 1990s, these established contractors, each with about 12 strong members in gangs of three, managed to work on four different sites at the same time. The contractor himself was the employer, supervising all sites, managing his resources to the utmost.
Today, these have eventually hatched into smaller sub-contractors, commissioned only at their own free will by the more fervent contractors. Such smaller contractors, although predominantly a family concern or simply a non-registered partnership, have also become more versatile with tendering and basic accounting. On the other hand, the larger ones have organised themselves into consortia, bidding for mega-projects on a national or possibly international scale.
It is evident that the local building contractor's irresponsible image is being dusted away, even if slowly. Much self-marketing is therefore needed by practically all local building contractors, particularly the smaller ones, if they really want to improve their image.
Self-marketing does not imply a frenzied marketing campaign through stickers and cheap adverts. It can only stem from workmanship standards, quality of the work output and the expected deliverables. Each contractor must learn to be more accountable for the works entrusted to him. One must not forget that the same contractor - together with the architect - is being entrusted with the client's money. Thus, correction of poor workmanship often calls for untimely delays for the client and unwarranted costs for the building contractor, sinking his public image (and that of other contractors) and bruising his pockets.
There is also an underlying misconception among some contractors, who typically exclusively execute building works to shell stage only. Any defects in their work or materials used, can easily be left 'under cover' for the finishing contractors. This is especially the case when most turnkey jobs are undertaken by different sub-contractors. Thus, it is important to appoint a project manager who will be able to identify any defects from the outset, thus avoiding delays and disputes.
Should we classify building contractors?
The classification of building and civil engineering contractors is one option and has now become an urgent requisite. This brings to mind the issue of cut-throat pricing in tender bids for Government or private major projects.
Even though most contracts are awarded on the basis of itemised pricing and pre-contract negotiations, more often than not, it has been realised by the employer (as the client), that the end result is not always cost-effective. Remedial works and corrections by third parties call for added expenditure and delays. In some cases, they result in contractors abandoning work due to financial constraints as a result of abnormal low pricing.
It is for this reason that clients are requesting hefty bid bonds from contractors bidding for a major construction job. This is meant to offer the client the assurance that no one will bid for a particular project with the intention of not achieving quality standards. Admittedly, this has also been abused of by calling for abnormally high bid bonds to automatically eliminate the financially weaker contractor. In this way, good quality workmanship may be missed.
The Federation of Building Contractors (FOBC) has already shown approval for some form of classification. Hence the debate is not whether or not to classify, but which yardstick to use.
Building and civil engineering contractors should be classified by the number and magnitude of major projects successfully executed by the individual contractor, the available workforce, the management team on their payroll and other necessary plant resources. Their financial status and track record are also important.
For a broad-scale classification, one should start by comparing a contractor against others in the same category. Criteria should include pricing, number of tender bids versus contracts awarded and possibly confirming output delivered with clients to ensure accountability.
Standards
Competence in specialised jobs is not simply achieved by poaching for the best employees or striking a deal with a sub-contractor at ridiculous low rates. Main contractors should be more concerned with an understanding of established standards and codes of practice which dictate the quality of executed products, both on and off sites. An in-house project manager with a tertiary education, as opposed to a glorified foreman, is essential. Today, this is but one requirement dictated by the more discerning client and consultants.
Current health and safety legislation ictates that the main contractor should provide adequate protection literally from head to toe. After a hefty investment by the contractor, his project manager needs to supervise employed staff and sub-contractors on site and enforce regulations in order to avoid unpleasant consequences.
Statistics for accidents on site in recent years still indicate a degree of persistent record number of fatalities. Workers are finally understanding that awareness is more effective than supervision and enforcement. The BICC is already offering short health and safety courses for construction workers. These are obliged to attend by their employers in order to obtain a certified full compliance pass.
Preliminaries and post-completion assessment
Preliminaries are often considered by certain clients as one section of the agreement where a contractor scoops a hefty lump sum of money. The aforementioned health and safety overhead costs, together with proper site hoarding, sanitary facilities, housekeeping, lighting and water and an all-round insurance cover, should all be included under the Preliminaries item in tenders.
This should be itemised and explained to form the basis of one form of assessment and classification of contractors. This would avoid striking items off bills of quantities in order to lower the overall cost of the tender submission, as is normally done by non bona fide contractors.
Preliminaries should therefore be respected, possibly even more emphasised by the consulting architects. A standard PCA (post-completion assessment) should be carried out by the consulting architects for verification against preliminaries and other contract clauses. This will result in a final contractor's certification for further classification.
Education is on the forefront of today's modern society, particularly to eradicate illiteracy. The financial means and human resources are available to us, with day and evening classes available almost all year round. It is only those who do not yearn to improve their quality of life who will not make the leap.
A basic level of education should augur well for the individual contractor. This will in turn bring about the much-desired progress in the building industry, not only for its own prosperity but also for the country's economy. This will certainly enhance the building contractors' public image with the authorities and the public.