Nigel Blandin, managing director at 4Hire, made the comments after UK engineering group NMCN – which was awarded the design-and-build contract to replace the existing sewage treatment plant in 2018 – went into administration this week.
A number of local subcontractors involved in the project are now seeking government clarification over protection from financial losses, with more than £200,000 potentially in jeopardy.
Chief Minister John Le Fondré has said one of the options would be for the government to ‘step in’ to keep the project going.
Mr Blandin said: ‘We have been contacting the [Infrastructure] Department for the past ten or 11 months with our concerns as to the ability of NMCN to pay their bills. The company has been in trouble for a few years now. It had a couple of big contracts on the mainland go pear-shaped and they’ve been struggling to recover ever since.
‘We had concerns which we raised with the [government] project managers over here, and they assured us in February that the contract had been worded in such a way that local contractors were protected.’
He added: ‘I’m sure they are very busy trying to sort out the mess that’s happened, but we have not had specific clarification that valid claims will be honoured by the government.’
It is the second time that the wider redevelopment of the Bellozanne site has run into such a problem. During the phase to build a new sludge platform, another UK-based contractor went into administration – leaving many local sub-contractors significantly out of pocket.
Mr Blandin said: ‘There are lots of main contractors that get brought over by the government and they don’t survive the job. This is because, in our experience as contractors, they don’t understand the machinations of working in Jersey, in an island. It is different from the mainland, so the government needs to review how they engage contractors.’
During yesterday’s States sitting, Deputy Steve Luce asked Senator Le Fondré if the government would ‘take on’ the project.
Senator Le Fondré said: ‘I believe one of the options would be to exercise “step-in” rights and therefore – given where the project is – to then work with the existing subcontractors and enable that work to continue.’
He added: ‘The Infrastructure Minister is very, very keen to make sure this is completed as close to schedule as possible so it is going to be finished. It has been a long-standing project, it is an important project and we wish it to be completed with as little disruption as possible.’
However, Mr Blandin said that – to his knowledge – all of the local contractors had already taken their equipment and left the site.
The works were initially scheduled for completion by the end of 2022, but have already faced delays due to Covid-19 travel restrictions and supply-chain issues.
The JEP asked the government how much NMCN had been paid so far, but was told that these details would not be provided at this time.
