Having spent over $800,000 in repairs to new homes, Minister of Housing Shane Gibson laid down the law with local contractors on Thursday, mandating them to produce quality work in the contracted time, or have their services terminated.
During a meeting with contractors at the Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union Hall, Minister Gibson faulted them for “shoddy” workmanship on housing projects spanning over two years.
He said that as the Ministry commences the first phase of a housing project for the building of 250 homes, the quality of houses to be offered to the Bahamian populace must be at the optimum.
He said the quality of work produced by contractors for the sale of $80,000 to $100,000 homes is “almost criminal”, and they need to take their contractual obligations more seriously.
The Minister arrived to the meeting late having returned from Grand Bahama to assess the housing projects on that island.
Having visited 11 homes were construction began since last December, Minister Gibson said upon inspection of the homes, it was found to date, none of them were completed.
“That is absolutely disgraceful and I don’t know how that could have happened in the Ministry, but that will not, absolutely not happen again,” he said.
“It is staggering to think that funds in excess of $800,000 had to be expended to clean up the shoddy workmanship left by contractors. When we look at what could have been done with those funds in terms of providing additional homes for the many deserving families that live in hope of the day when they would have some place to call home, it is almost criminal,” he said.
The meeting with contractors was called to set the tone that poor workmanship would not be tolerated for this new project. He said that deadlines set must also be met.
“We can no longer accept the status quo and business as usual. When we say three months for a contract, that is exactly what we’ll mean. Not four, not five, not six months or more after we have signed,” he said.
He said while he understands there are extenuating circumstances, contractors must also understand that there are commitments to home owners who have planned their lives around having a home completed within a specified time frame.
Minister Gibson said too often the small details are neglected and this could make the difference between a pleased home owner and a frustrated client.
“Often it doesn’t take much more effort to ensure that a line is straight and plumb before laying a block. Quality and pride in workmanship must be the watch word for a unit built,” he said.
The Department of Housing has been instructed to review, implement and revised contracted sum with regards to the housing units he said.
Minister Gibson acknowledged that the funds collected by contractors per square foot was sort of low and “we understand that it is very, very challenging for you to complete those homes for the contracted sum and so we decided to revise it. Bear in mind though, that at the end of the day, it is passed on to the home owner, so we could not put it where we wanted it to go. But we certainly saw that it deserved some sort of adjustment.”
He said that a bonus system would also be finalized for contractors that finish on time with a quality product.
“So don’t go out there and rush to finish early thinking you can take advantage of this bonus. It will not work that way. When you’re finished on time, a joint inspection will be made with either the building control officer or the Director to verify the quality of the work,” he said.
“In life, the bitter often comes with the sweet,” he said. Adding that a penalty clause will also be implemented for builders who exceed the contract’s time frame.
It was also noted that there is a shortage of building inspectors, and the Ministry will, in short order, begin hiring individuals to fill this void.
He reminded them that the funds used by the Department of Housing in the development of subdivisions are borrowed from The Bahamas Mortgage Corporation.
“From the moment the first dollar is drawn from the Corporation, the clocks starts ticking and interests on the funds advanced from The Mortgage Corporation has to be paid. This means that when a contractor does not finish on time it cost us money that would not have been budgeted as a part of the cost when we look at developing subdivisions,” he said.
There would be no more $20,000 in interest Minister Gibson said.
“Of course, we all know that will never ever happen again. If there are any contractors that have reached the time frame where they should have completed a particular stage, I’ve instructed the Inspectors and the Director to terminate those contracts immediately. So we won’t ever have that phase again where contractors cause us to run up large amounts of interest,” he said.
“This is the way business works and we want to encourage all of you to respond as the good businessmen that we know you are, and help us meet the challenge of providing affordable quality houses for our many clients,” he said.
By Vanessa C Rolle, The Nassau Guardian
