WSC 'delaying payment' to contractors

The Water Services Corporation was at times substantially delaying payments to its trenching contractors for services rendered, a concerned Federation of Industry said yesterday.

"Every day they remain unpaid means they incur extra overdraft costs that they can ill afford," it said. Although contractors are aware they had to finance the costs of the contracts they undertook through their own internal resources, they then had every right to be paid once the works were completed to specification.

The federation condemned this situation, where some payments were overdue by 18 months. Moreover, the WSC's quantity surveyor had in some cases still not measured or quantified the works done months earlier.

"The federation believes that, just as the corporation has every right to expect timeliness and professionalism from its contractors, the contractors have every right to expect the same qualities from the corporation itself," it said.