Fighting for Subbies Rights
SUBCONTRACTORS left unpaid millions of dollars for work and materials supplied to Queensland infrastructure projects want the State Government to compensate them for what they are owed.
The Government was both the client and the provider of Pre-Qualified Contractor status to two JM Kelly Group companies.
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$50 million J.M. Kelly collapse: What the Government knew before it all fell apart
It also was ultimately responsible for the industry regulator, the Queensland Building and Construction Commission which licensed the companies.
Liquidator FTI Consulting found that at the time of JM Kelly Project Builders’ 2016 collapse it may have been trading insolvent since June 2013, while JM Kelly Builders, which went into voluntary administration in October last year and then liquidation in November, was found by Price Waterhouse Coopers to have been insolvent since January 2017.
The audited financial position provided to the QBCC on April 22, 2016, by JM Kelly Project Builders’ director Geoff Murphy was in stark contrast to those found by FTI Consulting just eight weeks later.
Subbies United spokesman John Goddard said subcontractors had been left unpaid for work done on public housing projects after the collapse of Batir Constructions and for a range of infrastructure projects from schools to hospitals for JM Kelly Project Builders and JM Kelly Builders.
“Yes, they are responsible,” Mr Goddard said of the Government.
“Its pre-qualification process is obviously extremely flawed.”
Mr Goddard questioned how JMK Kelly Builders was able to retain its Pre-Qualified Contractor status after the collapse of JM Kelly Project Builders which was from the same group of companies operating from the same Rockhampton address and with largely the same personnel.
Subcontractors Alliance head Les Williams said the Government had been complicit in allowing the contracts to be transferred ..
Read Bill Hoffmans article here
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